•January 4, 2017•

By Jason Brown
NP Sports Editor

The Lady Redskins defeated MacArthur and lost to Galesburg, Salem and Vandalia.

In the second game against MacArthur, the Lady Redskins used a 21-6 third-quarter run to take the lead that propelled them to a 59-42 win.

“We started out slow in the first quarter, but I was very proud of the girls who came in off the bench to give us a spark defensively,” said coach Sheri McCain. “We stepped up our defense in the third quarter which I thought changed the game quite a bit.”

Three Lady Redskins scored in double digits.

Elizabeth Green and Brooke Tuttle each scored 11 points, and Chloe Riley added 10.

Tuttle also dished out four assists. Read More

•January 4, 2017•

The Sullivan boys’ basketball team defeated Blue Ridge for its first win of the season and finished seventh in the Team Soy Capital Christmas Tournament at St. Teresa High School Thursday.

With help from Bryce Farris’ 22 points, Sullivan defeated Blue Ridge 72-47.

The Redskins took a five-point lead after the first quarter then stretched that into a 32-19 halftime lead.

Sullivan extended that lead to 20 points, 54-34, by the end of the third quarter. Read More

Photo by R.R. Best
Isabella Benning passes the ball against Tuscola Thursday night in Bethany.

•December 28, 2016•

By Jason Lee Brown
NP Sports Editor

The Okaw Valley girls’ basketball finished a busy week of action at home, playing four games in four days.

For the second straight year, the Okaw Valley girls’ basketball team placed third in the Okaw Valley girls’ basketball Holiday Tournament with a 3-1 record.

The Lady Timberwolves defeated Blue Ridge Monday, lost to Unity on Tuesday and beat Altamont Wednesday.

The Lady Timberwolves carried that tournament momentum into their game Thursday at home and defeated Tuscola, 40-32.

OV took a five-point lead into the second quarter, but Tuscola came back and cut the lead to three, 21-18, at half.

The Lady Timberwolves tacked on four more points to their lead, 31-24, heading into the fourth quarter and held on for the win.

Paige Robinson scored a team-high 18 points, including four 3-pointers.

Natalie Jeffers scored nine, and Jesse Robinson added six. Read More

•December 28, 2016•

The Sullivan boys’ basketball team dropped two games in the Team Soy Capital Christmas Tournament at Decatur St. Teresa High School this past week.

Thursday night, Sullivan lost to LSA 72-44.

LSA jumped out to a 21-8 first quarter lead then extended that lead to eight by halftime. Read More

•December 21, 2016•

Kirk Whitaker
NP Sports

As the saying goes, 13 is “the magic number.”

Tuesday night, Dec. 20 for the Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond girls’ basketball team against Central A&M was unlucky.

On top of being without senior guard Kim Davis, ALAH missed 13 layups throughout the game—including seven in the first quarter—in what went from a close, physical game to start, to a blowout by night’s end, 53-36 in favor of the defending 1A runners-up.

“I knew we missed a lot of close shots, but I didn’t know we missed that many,” Knights’ head coach Craig Moffett responded. “I thought our half-court defense was good in the first half; they got some transition layups on us, but outside of that we didn’t let up on threes.” Read More