High school holiday tournament basketball is heating up. The Pontiac Holiday Tournament opens today with eight boys games, including Bloomington vs. Joliet West at 2:30 and Pontiac facing top seed Chicago Simeon at 7:30. The Pontiac contest can be heard on 98.9 WJEZ and WJEZ.com.
The State Farm Holiday Classic moves into the quarterfinal round today. In first round action, local small school boys winners included El Paso-Gridley over St. Thomas More 63-55 and Central Catholic over Piasa Southwestern 74-40. The Central Catholic girls also advanced to the quarterfinals with a 52-40 triumph over Elmhurst Immaculate Conception. Normal Community and Normal West are the local entries in the large school girls quarterfinals, the Iron with a 68-35 win over Geneseo and the Wildcats with a 47-21 victory over Rochester. Normal Community moves on in the large school boys division by beating Springfield 65-46.
The Illinois Wesleyan men face Emory University this afternoon in Atlanta.
In Marseilles boys action, Somonauk beat Dwight 42-35 and Flanagan-Cornell knocked off Woodland 56-31.
On the girls side, Dwight moved into the championship game of the Earlville tournament with a 44-39 win over Aurora Christian. Host Tri-City/Sangamon Valley beat Flanagan-Cornell-Woodland 48-24.
The Bulls edged the Knicks 92-87.
On the ice, the Nashville Predators beat the Blues 2-1. The Blackhawks are in Vancouver tonight.
