PEORIA — Maintaining the status quo made the city of Peoria a winner Saturday.
The Illinois High School Association Board of Directors unanimously voted to keep the boys basketball state tournament at Carver Arena inside the Peoria Civic Center for the next five years, through the 2019-20 season.
The IHSA also announced that the girls basketball state tournament will continue to be held at Illinois State University’s Redbird Arena in Normal for the next five seasons.
The IHSA received proposals from Champaign, where the boys’ tournament was held until moving to Peoria in 1996, and Hoffman Estates, which wished to host the Class 3A and 4A events at Sears Centre.
“It’s my favorite place to come to,” St. Joseph coach Gene Pingatore said. “You can just park your car and walk around. Everything’s all right here.”
Randall leads Morgan Park to third in 3A: Jarrin Randall learned to accept his role when high-scoring Marcus LoVett came to town.
But Randall made the most of his chance Saturday, drilling a Class 3A state-record 10 3-pointers to finish with a career-high 34 points in an 87-56 win against Rockford Lutheran for third place.
“It was a little hard at first, but I knew my time was going to come,” Randall said. “I just welcomed (LoVett) him with full arms because I know he was going to help us win. I just waited my time, and I still have another year.”
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Bolingbrook third in 4A: The Raiders bounced back from Friday’s loss to Stevenson with a 63-42 win against Geneva in the Class 4A third-place game.
Prentiss Nixon led Bolingbrook (25-7) with 15 points, and Dimitri Akenten added 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Nate Navigato led the Vikings (30-5) with 15 points.
Geneva’s 6-foot-8, 300-pound junior Loudon Vollbrecht was ejected in the fourth quarter after he committed a flagrant foul after a scramble for a loose ball. He had scored eight points and with a team-best seven rebounds.
Sideline hijinks: A former star player at Carver, Irvin became part of the action for a few seconds midway through the second quarter. Rockford Lutheran forward Nate Wieting dove to the floor chasing a loose ball and knocked Irvin to the floor, prompting fans to chuckle throughout the arena.
“I tried to move out of the way a little smoothly but he took me out,” Irvin said. “He asked if I was OK, but I told him I needed that to wake me up.”
Montini’s Westerkamp wins King of the Hill: Montini junior guard Jack Westerkamp made 13 3-pointers to win the King of the Hill 3-point contest on Saturday.
“It was a really cool experience,” Westerkamp said. “It was really fun. I just tried to not put any more pressure (today) and went out there and shot the ball.”
Stevenson goes for history: Prior to Saturday night, only two schools had won football and basketball state championships in the same school year.
Neither Carlyle (1988-89) nor Maroa Forsyth (2006-07) both competed in the largest enrollment class the way Stevenson does.
The Patriots went 14-0 and won their the first football championship in school history in the fall. Like the basketball team, Stevenson was ranked No. 1 for much of the year.
The two common links to the football and basketball teams, wide receiver Cameron Green and defensive lineman Nick Dillon, did not play basketball this season due to injuries sustained during football. But both all-state football players stayed with the basketball team throughout the winter.