OTTAWA – Friday night's Edwardsville win over Danville in the IHSA Class 4A Ottawa Sectional not only sent the Tigers to Tuesday night's Normal Super-Sectional.
It also set up a showdown between arguably two of the state's best high school large-school teams in the U.S.
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The Tigers will face Chicago Simeon at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Illinois State's Redbird Arena for the right to move into the Class 4A state semifinals at 7:30 p.m. St. Patrick's Day; both teams are nationally ranked, the Tigers at No. 20, the Wolverines at No. 22 in USA Today's Super 25 boys basketball rankings.
“It'll be a tough one,” said Danville coach Ted Haupt of the Edwardsville-Simeon game. “If they can get through that, I'd put my money on (Edwardsville); they're good, they'll be fun to watch if they continue.”
“We'll started practicing this weekend and try to do the best we can,” said Tiger coach Mike Waldo. “We'll prepare as best as we can and try to do our best on Tuesday.”
Simeon moved into Tuesday's Super-Sectional with a 69-52 win over Harvey Thornton in the South Holland Thornwood Sectional final Friday night; Marquis Brown led the Wolverines 18 points, while Talen Tucker added 14 points and 10 rebounds and Messiah Jones chipped in 12 points and seven rebounds in the win.
Simeon brings a 28-3 record into Tuesday's game, while the Tigers enter the game at 30-1 on the year.
