Southwestern's boys are on a roll as the regular season comes to a close. The Piasa Birds edged Hillsboro 46-43. Caden Heyen and Justin Bailey led them with 14 and 10 points respectively. (All photos courtesy of Michael Weaver)

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PIASA SOUTHWESTERN 46, HILLSBORO 43: Caden Heyen led Piasa Southwestern with 14 points as the Piasa Birds got past Hillsboro 46-43 in a South Central Conference game in Hillsboro Tuesday night;

Southwestern improved to 19-7 on the year while the Hilltoppers fell to 13-11. The Piasa Birds are one win away from another 20-game winning season and are 7-1 in the SCC.

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Justin Bailey added 10 for the Birds while Ben Lowis and E.J. Kahl each had seven on the night. The Piasa Birds' Caleb Robinson contributed six points. Hillsboro’s Kaiden White had 15 points and Drake Paden added 13 points.

Southwestern head coach Jason Darr was very satisfied to get the victory over Hillsboro.

“Hillsboro is a good team in our conference,” he said. “They were 6-1 in the conference coming into this game, I think. I thought our kids played great defense and rebounded the ball really well. We are one shot away from winning a conference championship.”

Southwestern visits Pana at 7:30 p.m. Friday to close out the regular season. The Piasa Birds open play at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the IHSA Class 2A East Alton-Wood River Regional.

Coach Darr said he hopes to see his team notch another win on Friday at Pana, which would push the squad to 8-1 in the SCC and a guaranteed 20-win season.

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