Henry has strong game against Prairie Central

Prairie Central capitalized on five three-pointers in the second quarter to surge past the Unity in their Illini Prairie Conference game back on February 20. The Rockets taking another loss on the chin, lost at home, 55-33.

Taylor Henry led the team with 10 points and 10 rebounds in the weekender. Head coach Dave Ellars said she continues build on her role has a future team leader.

"Taylor is a winner; she will do what ever it takes for the team," he said. "She sees the floor well and does a great job of reading the defense."

Meanwhile, the team lone senior, Chloee Reed, finished with a team-high 12 points. She packaged one steal, three boards and two assists as best she could to help keep the game competitive as possible.

Another Unity player showing signs of making great strides in contributing to the team effort is freshman Katey Moore. Despite having to train in a crazy pandemic restricted year, she has made steady improvement as first year varsity player for the Rockets.

"Katey is very athletic and is always working on ways to improve," Ellars said. His plebe player scored 7 points and added the same number of boards to her Saturday afternoon stats. "As a freshman she is learning the speed of the game at the varsity level and has adjusted."

Erika Steinman, who had one steal and credited with two rebounds, was the only other Unity player to make a scoring contribution with four points.

The visiting Hawks were paced by Mariya Sisco's four treys and 16 points outing. Sister Chloe Sisco was 4-for-4 from the free throw line and good for 12 points. Senior Natalie Graf chipped another six points to round out the team's top three scorers.

Box Score

Prairie Central	19	15	13	8	- 55
Unity	12	4	8	9	- 33

Unity
C. Reed 3 (2) 0-0 -- 12, England 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Renfrow 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Miller 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Stringer 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Steinman 2 (0) 0-0 -- 4, B. Henry 0 (0) 0-2 -- 0, M. Reed 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Moore 3 (0) 1-2 -- 7, Alagna 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, T. Henry 4 (0) 2-5 -- 10, Flesch 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0.

Prairie Central
C. Sisco 1 (2) 4-4 -- 12, Davies 0 (1) 1-2 -- 4, Kafer 1 (0) 2-6 -- 4, Stork 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Edelmen 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, M. Sisco 2 (4) 0-0 -- 16, C. Strong 1 (1) 0-0 -- 5, Wilkey 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Graf 0 (1) 3-4 -- 6, Collins 0 (0) 2-2 -- 2, Buff 0 (0) 2-2 -- 2, WhitFill 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Grayburg 1 (0) 0-0 -- 2.

SJO & Unity basketball streaming schedule tonight on NFHS

Games on hold

Update: At 1:16 PM, the St. Joseph-Ogden athletic department announced all games for tonight have been canceled due to weather conditions. New date TBA. At 1:42 PM, Unity games were also been postponed. JV and varsity contests will be played at Prairie Central on February 25.

Catch the Unity boys basketball team or both the boys and girls St. Joseph-Ogden basketball squads in action tonight via the NFHS streaming services.

Payton Vallee looks to make a pass at a SJO home game

SJO senior Payton Vallee looks for an open teammate in SJO's home game against Monticello last year on January 20, 2021. Vallee and this year's undefeated Spartans are on the road tonight against Central Catholic tonight. Fans can enjoy the game from the warmth of their homes via a streaming services.

The Rockets varsity squad (0-4), in search of their first win of the season, take on Prairie Central tonight. In the team's best performance this season, Blake Kimball and Brady Porter led Unity with 21 and 20 points respectively in Unity's 10-point loss to Pontiac on Friday. The pair along with Damian Knoll and Dillon Rutledge are set to come away with a hard-fought win tonight.

Meanwhile, the undefeated St. Joseph-Ogden girls basketball team, 2-0 in Illini Prairie Conference play and 3-0 overall, travel to Bloomington to take on Central Catholic. The road game was originally scheduled for last night, but Mother Nature had other ideas forcing the Illini Prairie Conference game to be rescheduled for tonight. The Lady Saints are 4-2 after posting wins over Pontiac, Prairie Central and Normal University. The team's two losses were at the hands of larger programs, Redbirds of Metamora and Galesburg's Silver Streaks.

While the SJO girls squad plays to keep their perfect season record intact, the Spartan varsity squad looks to pick up win number 2 after a late start to the 2021 season due to COVID-19 protocols that had to be observed during the first week of play. All eyes will be on Ty Pence who led all scorers in the season opener against Rantoul with an impressive double-double. The sophomore D-I prospect drained 24 points and snag 20 rebounds in the victory.

SJO fans shouldn't let BCC's 2-4 record fool them. The Saints losses have come against Class 3A Normal Community, Moline, Rock Island and Morton leading up to tonight's IPC game in St. Joseph.

Here are the links to each of tonight's streams. If you are not already a subscriber, follow this link sign up for a monthly or annual subscription. Monthly passes are just $10.99 each or save 47% and purchase an annual subscription at $69.99.

Sentinel area sports tonight

SJO Boys Junior Varsity Basketball vs Central Catholic | 5:25 PM Central

Unity Boys Sophomore Basketball @ Prairie Central | 5:30 PM Central

SJO Girls Junior Varsity Basketball @ Central Catholic | 5:25 PM Central

SJO Girls Varsity Basketball @ Central Catholic | 6:55 PM Central

SJO Boys Varsity Basketball vs Central Catholic | 6:57 PM Central

Unity Boys Varsity Basketball @ Prairie Central | 7:00 PM Central

Porter, Armstrong earn The Sentinel's first Basketball Player of the Week

February 1 - 6, 2021

Sentinel basketball player of the week February 1-6, 2021

~ Boys ~

Brady Porter

Unity

Brady Porter finished the first week of the IHSA season with 18 points, 2 rebounds and 2 blocks. The senior led the team scored six points by way of a pair treys against Maroa-Forsyth and 13 points against Paris for the 0-2 Rockets.

Honorable Mention:
Austin Langendorf, Unity
Dillon Rutledge, Unity

~ Girls ~

Ella Armstrong

St. Joseph-Ogden

Ella Armstrong collected 19 points, 15 from a team-high performance against Villa Grove, after the first two games of the season. Making eight trips to the free throw line, she finished the first week of play sinking 62% of them to help the Spartans go 2-0 during week one.

Honorable Mention:
Payton Jacob, SJO
Abby Behrens, SJO

Prep Hoops | Scoring drought sinks Rockets in second game of the season

Unity's home game against Paris last Friday was a textbook case of a tale of every other quarter.

After a solid first quarter of play and leading on the scoreboard 12-10, missed second quarter scoring opportunities led to an eventual 67-33 loss in non-conference action with the visiting Tigers.

Damian Knoll tied the game at 7-all midway into the first quarter and Will Cowan scored the go-ahead tip in to give Unity a two-point advantage early in the game. A couple of exchanges later, Cowan drilled a trey from the southeast corner of the floor for a 12-7 Rocket lead.

With it much too early to roll over and lie, Paris' Zach Farnham answers with three pointer for his team to close out the quarter trailing, 12-10.

Paris quickly tied the game at twelves in the second quarter on a shot from Jude Sullivan and then the Rockets' shoot woes surfaced. The Tigers outscored Unity, who made just one of the 13 shots in the frame, 23-4. Paris, on the other hand, sunk eight of their 13 attempts in the same period.

After a respectable third quarter effort yielding 13 points, Unity mustered just four in the final quarter of the contest.

Three players had seven opportunities from the free throw line, to their team's detriment went unconverted.

Despite the team's overall shooting deficiency, Brady Porter led Unity's scoring effort with 13 points. Cowan and Austin Langendorf chipped in another five points apiece.

Three seniors did the bulk of the heavy shooting for the Tigers. Sullivan, who scored the majority of his points in the second and third quarters of the game, finished the night with a game-high 17 points. Garrett King contributed 12 points and Mason Hutchings rounded out the top scorers on the visiting team with 8 points.

The Rockets play at home again on Friday night hosting Pontiac for another Illini Prairie Conference game this week. The varsity game is scheduled to start 7pm. Fans can catch the game on the NFHS Network.

Box Score

Unity	12	4	13	4	- 33
Paris	10	23	24	10	- 67

Unity
Cowan 1 (1) 0-0 -- 5, Hensch 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Rawdin 0 (0) 0-1 -- 0, Rutledge 0 (0) 0-1 -- 0, Knoll 1 (2) 0-0 -- 8, Porter 3 (2) 1-6 -- 13, Page 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Langendorf 1 (0) 3-6 -- 5, Alt 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Jokisch 1 (0) 0-0 -- 2.

Paris
Allen 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0, Hutchings 2 (1) 1-1 -- 8, Farnham 0 (3) 0-0 -- 9, King 1 (2) 4-4 -- 12, Porter 1 (0) 0-0 -- 2, Breneman 4 (0) 2-5 -- 10, Rhoads 2 (0) 1-2 -- 5, Mills 0 (1) 0-0 -- 3, Sullivan 5 (1) 4-4 -- 17, Nugent 0 (0) 1-2 -- 1, Brinkerhoff 0 (0) 0-0 -- 0.