CARROLLTON – The Carrollton Hawks are heading to the IHSA Class 1A girls basketball state tournament.
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Class 1A and 2A play their semifinal games on Thursday, March 6. Third-place games will take place Friday morning, and the championship games will be played on Saturday.
Carrollton vs. Cissna Park is the first of 12 games to be played at CEFCU Arena on the campus of Illinois State University. The Hawks take the court at 9:30 a.m., making it an early morning for those planning to travel.
Located at 702 W. College Avenue, Normal, IL 61761, the arena is a little over a two-hour drive from Carrollton.
Cissna Park, a small village located about an hour northeast of Champaign, has a shorter drive at about an hour and 20 minutes to Normal.
The Wolverines enter Thursday morning’s game with a 30-5 record. They defeated St. Terasa 47-35 in the super-sectional. The Wolverines are riding an 11-game win streak.
The only common opponent between Cissa Park and Carrollton is Calhoun. The Wolverines lost to the Warriors 34-22 on Jan. 11. The Hawks, of course, beat their Western Illinois Valley Conference rivals twice this season by scores of 52-46 on Feb. 10 in the regular season finale and again 57-39 in the Raymond Sectional final on Feb. 27.
The Hawks beat Albion-Edwards County 62-44 in the Okawville Super-Sectional on Monday to advance to their eighth state tournament in program history, second time in the modern four-class era.
Carrollton won historic back-to-back championships in 2001 and 2002 under legendary head coach Lori Blade. The last time the Hawks were in the big dance was the 2013-14 season under head coach Brian Madson. They took second place, losing to Annawan 59-23.
The Wolverines are coached by Anthony Videka, who is in his 10th year with the team. This is Cissna Park’s third time at the state tournament, first in the modern four-class era. They lost to Marquette Catholic 51-35 in the quarterfinals in the 1999-2000 season.
The IHSA split the state tournament into four classes in the 2007-08 season. The girls basketball tournament began having third-place games in the 2011-12 season.
In the other state semifinal bracket is Pecatonica (30-6) and St. Edward (26-10). Those two play right after Carrolton and Cissna Park at 11:15 a.m. on Thursday, March 6.
The Class 1A third-place game is scheduled for Friday, March 7 at 9:30 a.m. while the championship is on Saturday, March 8 at 1 p.m. All games played at Illinois State University’s CEFCU Arena.
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