Power Rankings: January 13th

 

 
1) Lanphier – Last week Lanphier beat MacArthur at home, went on the road to beat Lincoln at Roy S. Anderson and less than 24 hours later, they were playing Hazelwood Central, the No. 3 team in the Missouri 5A Coaches Poll, at the Highland Shootout. The Lions lost that game, but they had a lead mid-way through the fourth quarter. Their two losses have come to two of Missouri’s top teams. Southeast still stands between Lanphier and a perfect CS8 run.

2) Southeast – The Spartans slide up a spot and past MacArthur. Southeast won at Eisenhower in their only game of the week and they did it without their second leading scorer, Isaiah Walton (12.9 ppg). Walton has a sprained ankle, but he’s expecting to be back in action on Saturday against Champaign Central, which is the Spartans’ final tune up before City.

3) MacArthur – We’re splitting hairs between MacArthur and Southeast every week at this point. The Generals held serve at home in a five point win over Rochester on Friday before falling on Saturday to a very quality Bloomington team. In all, MacArthur has lost two of their last three. Both losses were to good ball clubs, so they’re still firmly in our second tier.

4) Glenwood – Sure seems like the Titans were happy to be out of Bloomington and done with the State Farm Classic. Since that tournament (which didn’t go very well), the Titans have posted back-to-back 25 point wins against Jacksonville and SHG. Parker Allen is the CS8’s third best scorer at 19.4 points a game and when you’re only giving up 40 or less like they have since the holiday tournaments, that’s a recipe for success.

5) Lincoln – The Railers are in the midst of a four game slide, dating back to the final two games of the Collinsville Tournament. The last time Lincoln lost four games in a row was the 2011-12 season when they lost five in a row at one point. You’d have to go back to the 07-08 season to find the last time it happened before that. Point being: it's pretty rare. The losses have all come against good teams, including the top three teams on this list, so no reason to panic just yet. The Railers had a chance to beat Lanphier on Friday, which means they have a chance to beat anybody on any given night.

6) Jacksonville – The Crimsons responded from the beating they took against Glenwood with a couple lopsided wins over the past week. Jacksonville jumped out to a 26-2 lead against Springfield High last weekend and they held Taylorville to 27 points in a win on Tuesday night. They’ll try to take that momentum in to the CS8 “Non-City” Tournament which kicks off on Friday.

7) Rochester – The Rockets picked up another CS8 win last week and were more than competitive at MacArthur on Friday night. They seem to have some momentum, but this is a big two week stretch. The Rockets will play A LOT of games over the next couple weeks between the Sangamon County Tournament and the CS8 “Non-City” Tournament. Last year, that heavy schedule took a toll on Rochester.

8) SHG – We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the athletes on the roster, but it really comes down to whether or not those athletes can get the ball in the hoop. SHG made 10 three pointers in a win against Eisenhower last Tuesday. They were 3-20 from downtown and 12-42 from the field in a loss at Glenwood on Friday. Pretty easy to see the correlation there.

9) Eisenhower – The Panthers are 6-1 outside of conference play (shoutout to Slushie). That means two things. 1) Eisenhower is not adverse to winning. 2) The CS8 is a tough conference.

10) Springfield High – Remember when SHS was a 4-seed and ran the table at City? 

1) Pleasant Plains – In their County tournament opener, the Cardinals forced 25 turnovers. The defense quickness of Cole Greer, Daulton Nibbe, Isaac Collins, Jacob Cronister and Aden Sachs causing chaos for opposing guards and if their opponents do get into their half court offense and execute, the Bash Brothers (Austin Finley and Nik Clemens) are there to keep people out of the paint. Isaac Collins is averaging 17.3 per game and shooting nearly 60 percent from the floor. Pair that with Finley and Clemens both shooting about 55 percent from the floor and Cliff Cameron’s crew is a tough team to beat. A tenth county title for Cameron would quite an accomplishment on Saturday.

 

2) Wiliamsville – The Bullets wasted no time taking care of business in their last two contests. Holding a team to two points in the first quarter and just four points in the third quarter will win you some games and the Bullets have looked the part of a top Sangamo team against Illini Central and in their County tourney opener against Tri-City. Harrison Creswell is the leader offensively for this team, scoring just under 16 points per game while shooting at a 58 percent clip from the floor. But are their enough Bullets in the chamber to get through Rochester and Pleasant Plains to take home a County championship? That’ll decide if they move up or down in the Power Rankings next week.

 

3) Athens – Standing in their zone defense with their arms outstretched the Warriors can put Matt Wendling, Hunter Maxwell and Devin Richardson across the middle of their 1-3-1, with Drayton Davis hounding ball handlers up top. That’s a pretty daunting defense, as Wending-Maxwell-Richardson can basically stand fingertip to fingertip and take up the whole court. Wendling became the school’s all time leading scorer on Tuesday evening and is already running away with the area scoring title, averaging 25.8 points per game and nearly nine rebounds per contest. Jeff Johnston’s guys have just two losses this season, to Williamsville and Plains, but the loss to the Cardinals wasn’t a Sangamo game so the Warriors are still very much in the running for a conference crown.

 

4) Riverton – The Hawks proved to us they are the real deal on Tuesday in their County Tournament opener against Rochester. In the end, the length and athleticism of the Rockets prevailed, but a Sangamo team that started the season the way they did that is now playing a competitive game against the Rockets shows us that Riverton belongs on the Power Rankings list. We’ll see whether they move up or down by what they do to finish out the tournament and if they can compete in the Sangamo this season with the teams on the top of this list. They meet Ilini Central and then host Athens next Friday. 

 

5) PORTA – While we don’t get to see them this week because they’re playing in the Winchester Tournament, the Bluejays are still flying on our radar because they keep winning. Last week, they picked up two more wins over Midwest Central and then Routt in the tourney opener. They play Calhoun tonight with a chance to move into the semifinals. If they can win their midseason tourney they’ll be more than ready for another shot at Williamsville next week.

 

 

Auburn – The Trojans keep flirting with the top five, but land in honorable mention this week after picking up two wins over solid area teams. Scott Bacon’s team picked up wins over New Berlin on the road and then knocked off Pawnee in the County Tournament opener on Monday. Aubrey Beard continues to grow as a post presence, which is just what Auburn needs to compete in the Sangamo for the rest of this season. The Trojans get a shot at Pleasant Plains on Wednesday night in the semifinals, if they beat them, they’ll break into the top five next week for sure.