Photo of the Day - March 3, 2021

Point - Spartans!

(Left to right) St. Joseph-Ogden's Anna Wentzloff, Alex Frerichs, Hannah Umbarger and Shayne Immke celebrate a point for the Spartans with head coach Abby McDonald during game three of their Class 2A supersectional match against Chicago Christian. After dropping the first set, SJO came back to take the match 2-1 on November 8, 2019. McDonald and the Spartans went on to finish third in the state during the 2019-20 season. After a nearly a eight month delay for their season, McDonald and the Spartans can begin practicing for the 2021 spring season on Monday. This academic year the IHSA volleyball season will run March 15, or seven days after the team's first practice after that date, until April 24.

(Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

Area varsity boys teams drop conference games

Unity 48 - St. Thomas More 50

Blake Kimball led the Rockets with a game-high 20 points and Nate Drennen added another 16 in their team's overtime road loss to St. Thomas More. Austin Langendorf, Henry Thomas and Damian Knoll combined their effort for 12 more points for UHS.

Unity's next game is at home against Rantoul this Friday.

Spartans suffer biggest loss of the season

Illinois Valley Central's Mac Parmelee had a banner day against SJO. The 6-foot-3 senior used his size to score 20 points in the paint on his way to a game-high 35 finish for the Grey Ghost in their 77-52 win over St.Joseph-Ogden.

SJO got 27 points from Ty Pence, who notched another double-double with 10 boards on his home court. Evan Ingram contributed eight more points and Jackson Rydell rounded out the top three scorers with seven points.

The Spartans' JV squad defeated IVC's squad, 58-48.

Rydell and the Spartans host Olympia on Friday for another Illini Prairie matchup.