Lady Bruins Classic set for Saturday tip-off

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SPRING VALLEY — The Lady Bruins Christmas Classic tips off today at St. Bede Academy. The host Lady Bruins are the No. 1 seed. There will be eight games played over 12 hours, starting at 9 a.m. and ending after 9 p.m.

No. 6 LaMoille will face No. 4 Seneca at 10:30 a.m. and come back to face No. 2 Chillicothe IVC at 7:30 p.m. St. Bede and Bureau Valley square  off at noon with the Lady Bruins to come back at 6 p.m. against Mendota. Princeton jumps into the fray at 3 p.m. against No. 3 Earlville/Leland.

Down Interstate 39, the Hall Lady Red Devils will travel to the State Farm Classic in Bloomington-Normal. Sixth-seeded Hall (10-1) will face Orion at 10 a.m. Wednesday at ISU’s Redbird Arena in a loaded field of top Class A talent around the state, including 2007 state runner-up Rochester.

The boys action will also start up Wednesday at Plano, where the Hall Red Devils (10-1) will be the top seed. The Red Devils face Mendota for the second time this season at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The annual L-P freshmen boys tournament tips off Wednesday. Princeton will play Mendota at 1 p.m. and Hall meets Rochelle at 6 p.m.

On Thursday, tournaments will commence at Princeville and Sterling Newman.

The DePue Little Giants will face an uphill battle as the eighth seed in the 80th Princeville Holiday Tourna-ment facing No. 1 Brimfield at 6 p.m. At Newman, St. Bede takes on Ashton-Franklin Cen-ter at 4:30 p.m. with La-Moille to follow the Bruins to the floor at 7:30 p.m. against Newman.

• Take me to your leader: Two area basketball players became their school’s all-time leading scorers this week. Annawan senior Tanner Carlson scored 15 points Saturday against Ashton-Franklin Center, just enough to overtake Jody Junis as the Braves’ all-time leader. Carlson now has 1,585 points, one more than Junis, who in 1986, led Bruce Placek’s Braves to two wins over the eventual state runner-up Ohio Bulldogs. Carlson is averaging 18.5 points per game for the 6-2 Braves, with junior teammate Alex Coppejans (17 ppg) providing a solid 1-2 punch.

At Henry, senior guard Lee Piccinelli has broken the school record of 1,371 points by 2006 grad Trevor McKey. He padded his totals with 33 points Tuesday against Lowpoint-Washburn.

• Olson sued: According to the Champaign News Gazette, LaSalle-Peru boys’ basketball coach Scott Olson has been sued for allegedly striking three former players at Danville High School when he coached there. The suit was filed in Vermilion County Circuit Court this month. Olson was suspended for 20 days by Danville High School, and then was reinstated by a 4-3 vote by the school board.

• Last-second shots: Grey Giovanine’s Augustana Vikings have moved to fifth in the latest NCAA Division III national poll in men’s basketball, according to D3hoops.com. The Vikings (8-1) improved four spots in the ranking. ...  Bureau Valley has tickets available for Chuck Rolinski’s IBCA Central Illinois Shoot-Out when the Storm plays Elmhurst York on Jan. 5 at Illinois Wesleyan University, in Bloomington.

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