Here are this week's candidates for the Antonio's Pizza Prime Time Performer. You can vote once every 12 hours until the polls close on Friday at 5pm. The winner will receive a $20 gift card to Antonio's Pizza!
Yaakema Rose (Lanphier Guard) The Lanphier Lion had a stat line on Tuesday night against SHG that would be good enough for a player in a couple games. Rose put up 20 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, had four assists and four steals against the Cycs and only played for three quarters. Against Jacksonville on Friday, he had nine steals…by himself, to go with six points, six rebounds and four assists. Coach Blake Turner needs guys to do things besides score when he’s got Xavier Bishop averaging over 25 a game.
Garrett Aeilts (Lincoln Guard) The Lincoln Railsplitters got a huge road conference win on Friday night in double overtime. It was Aeilts who finally stepped up and knocked down a huge three-pointer to start the second overtime to push Lincoln away from a pesky Rochester team that wouldn’t go away when the Railsplitters offense had gone stagnant. The offense for Lincoln can come from a variety of guys, but when the clock is winding down, it’s a matter of who is going to step up and make the shot when they need it the most.
Peyton Hudspeth (Auburn 195 Wrestler) After picking up two wins on Thursday, Peyton Hudspeth made his name known throughout the state on Saturday in Petersburg. Hudspeth made his way into the finals and then knocked off the No. 2 ranked wrestler in the state in his weight class, by pin, to take the title. The Trojans grappler has a shot to do big things in Champaign this spring.
Olivia Kaufmann (Jacksonville Guard) The Crimsons scorer can straight up get buckets. Kaufmann scored 31 points to lead Jacksonville to a big conference win over Southeast on Saturday. She knocked down 7 of 8 free throws in the fourth quarter to put the game on ice. Kaufmann is more than capable of scoring against any team and she’s proved that, averaging over 24 points per game this season.
Katie Elmore (Lutheran High Forward) Don’t look now, but the Lutheran High Crusaders have cruised out to a 10-1 start to the 2015 season. Leading the way for LuHi is Elmore, who scored 24 points in their win over Warrensburg-Latham on Saturday and 27 against Mt. Pulaski on Thursday. Elmore has been clutch from the charity stripe lately, making 22 of her last 24 from the line.
Garrick Walker & J.D. Turner (Glenwood 145 & 152 Wrestlers) The Titan wrestlers led their team to a huge win over state-ranked Champaign Centennial at the Southeast Duals on Saturday. Walker and Turner combined to go 8-0 on the day as Glenwood got by Champaign Central, Macomb and Peoria Notre Dame on their way to a team trophy.
Marah Abu-Tayeh (Williamsville Guard) Thursday night may have decided the Sangamo conference race, with all due respect to the Auburn Trojans. Marah scored 17 of the Bullets’ 29 points in Williamsville’s win. Not a bad follow-up performance from Monday night when she scored 21 of Williamsville’s 41 in their win over a very good Tri-City team.
Isaiah Walton (Southeast Guard) The Spartans want respect and they're finally getting it from us. After a city rivalry win over Springfield, thanks in no small part to Walton’s 25 points against the Senators, they followed it up with what could have been a trap game in their home opener. Instead, Walton delivered a team high 11 points and a rim-rocking dunk that you can see in this week’s Big Nasty that put another conference win on ice for the Spartans against Eisenhower.
Parker Allen (Glenwood Guard) The Titans' team leader last year is playing college basketball now, so entering the 2015-2016 season, nobody knew what to expect from the reigning conference champs. Turns out Todd Blakeman’s boys are in good hands with a familiar name in Chatham. Allen scored a career high 37 points on an even more impressive 14 of 21 shooting in Glenwood’s rivalry win at SHG on Friday night to push the Titans to 3-0 in conference play. Allen added 23 points last Tuesday night in a big road win over Triad.
Isaac Collins (Pleasant Plains Guard) The Sangamo’s Steph Curry had himself an impressive week. Collins went 6 for 8 from behind the arc at the Bowl to lead the Cardinals to a win over Jacksonville that shocked many in central Illinois. The junior followed that up with a 7 of 11 performance from behind the arc in Plains’ rivalry game against Williamsville for a game high 21 points. Pleasant Plains’ best three-pointer shooter in school history is averaging 52.3 percent from downtown this season…and that’s just downright scary.
Matt Wendling (Athens Guard) We believe that if his teammates could stay healthy, the Warriors would be competing for a conference title this year. Instead, Matt Wendling is having to put up some ridiculous scoring numbers just to keep Athens in the win column at all. Wendling put up 30 at home on Friday night to get the Warriors a much needed win over New Berlin. He scored 18 points in a road loss to Williamsville on Tuesday with the Warriors missing a good chunk of their starting lineup.
Meagan McNicholas (Rochester Guard) The Rockets are the favorites to win yet another conference title and make a deep postseason run and a big reason why is the senior we call Merg. She scored 11 points in both Rochester’s games last week, two wins against Taylorville and Glenwood. The most impressive part is how efficient she was, only needing 13 shots to score those 22 points. The combination of McNicholas and Angela Perry makes Rochester as scary as any team in the area.
Tristan Weaver (Auburn Guard) We’re not sure anyone had a better Friday night than Mr. Weaver. The Trojans traveled down 104 to take on the Pawnee Indians and Weaver came home with a story to tell his grandkids. Weaver hit a three-pointer to force the game into overtime at the buzzer. That’s impressive enough to get him on the Prime Time Performer list, but he wasn’t done. Weaver went back out and hit a game winner at the buzzer in overtime to get a huge early season win for the Trojans against a very good 1A team in Pawnee.
