July 11, 2025 Local Stories in and Around St. Joseph, Illinois

Historic night: St. Joseph, PVO seventh-grade boys’ basketball teams playing for state titles

Sugg. Head:
By Jim Cotter

Thursday night will be one members of the St. Joseph Middle School and Prairieview-Ogden seventh-grade boys’ basketball teams will cherish.

For quite some time.

Both teams, separated by only 10 miles, will play in state championship games in their respective classes.

St. Joseph (21-5) will vie for the Class 3A state title against Taylor Ridge Rockridge (21-1) at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in Wenona at Fieldcrest Middle School. At the same time, PVO (22-4) will play for a 1A state championship against Lincoln West Lincoln-Broadwell (28-1) at East Peoria Central Junior High School.

St. Joseph earned its place in the title game with two wins this past Saturday, defeating Piasa Southwestern 30-26 in the state quarterfinals before holding off a pesky Williamsville squad 34-32 on Saturday evening in the state semifinals.

James Barron scored a team-high eight points in the win against Southwestern, with Tanner Siems (seven points), Kendrick Johnson (six points), Collin Thomey (five points) and Kyler Swanson (four points) all chipping in.

Siems scored a game-high 16 points in the win against Williamsville, with Thomey (12 points), Barron (two points), Johnson (two points) and Logan Mills (two points) also denting the scoring column.

St. Joseph, who is coached by Wes Miler, is making its 13th trip to the state tournament in school history, but has never won a boys’ basketball state championship.

According to Miller, the days leading up to the championship game have been exciting, but preparation continues in the same fashion.
“We really haven’t done anything different than normal, except work on preparation for our opponent, such as what (Rockridge) runs, who is guarding whom and so forth,” Miller said.

Many of the Panthers have played together since they were in third grade on a travel team established several years ago.

This has given these young men a chance to gel as a team, while getting better in the process.

“We just take each game one at a time and not try to get too high or too low,” Miller said. “I don’t think that any of our boys are caught up in the moment, but it still will be an exciting time for them to represent their school and play for a state title.”

Siems said playing with many of his current teammates from a young age has led them to this successful season.

“We’ve been playing together since we were in second grade, and we would always play teams that were a year older and in the beginning, we would lose by 50 points on some occasions,” Siems said, “but every time we went out there, we learned something so that the lopsided losses became few and far between, and we began to have success.”

Besides Barron, Johnson, Mills, Siems, Swanson and Thomey, Jared Altenbaumer, Hayden Coffey, Jude Coursey, Jackson Ennis, Owen Knapp, Jefferey Kuchenbrod, Gabe Mata, Carson Sarnecki and Carter Turner are on the St. Joseph team.

PVO, meanwhile, earned its way into the state championship game with two wins this past Saturday, defeating Kewanee Visitation 40-31 in the state quarterfinals and edged Normal Epiphany 36-35 in a thrilling state semifinal.

Coy Taylor scored a game-high 15 points to pace PVO against Kewanee Visitation, with Logan Lackey (11 points), Kodey McKinney (eight points) and Parker Fitch (six points) rounding out the scoring.
Lackey produced a game-high 15 points in the win against Normal Epiphany, with Taylor (14 points), Fitch (four points) and McKinney (three points) also contributing.

The Mustangs, coached by Chase Gilliland, are making their ninth state tournament appearance. But, just like St. Joseph, are vying for their first-ever state title.

“We finished second in 2009, and there have been a handful of times that we have gone to state, but this team is special because of the makeup of this team,” Gilliland said. “We’ve been working on a lot in practice this week preparing for our opponent. This group has worked really hard this season.”

Gilliland helped his dad, Duane, coach on his way up the ranks, and the elder Gilliland still coaches the fifth and sixth grade teams at PVO. Chase said he has learned a lot from his dad coaching, and it’s been exciting being on this run with players that he has coached before them moving up.

“Most of the time, the players will be done with organized basketball once they graduate eighth grade, but for this team, I see a lot of promise for their future, especially when they move into high school and join the St. Joseph boys on the court,” Gilliland said. “SJO fans should be happy about what is about to come for the basketball program.”

Along with Fitch, Lackey, McKinney and Taylor, other team members are Tayton Gerdes, Ray Graham, Brodie Harms, Coy Hayes, James Huisinga and Vance McComas.

Banner
Related Posts

GCMS awaits as SJO girls’ basketball continues postseason run

February 11, 2019

February 11, 2019

Four high school girls’ basketball teams, including St. Joseph-Ogden, will descend upon the Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley gymnasium on Monday night. By...

SJO girls’ basketball reaches Sweet 16

February 12, 2019

February 12, 2019

One more win and the St. Joseph-Ogden High School girls’ basketball team can celebrate its first sectional championship in 12...

Meyer, Cook and Orcutt to play for Fighting Bees

February 7, 2019

February 7, 2019

Back in the ‘80s there was a movie that hit theatres across America called the Three Amigos. St. Joseph-Ogden High...

Bagby picks Indiana State

March 21, 2019

March 21, 2019

Next year, Cassidy Bagby will be a Sycamore. Earlier this month, St. Joseph-Ogden senior Cassidy Bagby signed her letter of...

Expectations remain high for SJO baseball in 2019 season

March 28, 2019

March 28, 2019

For a program that has accomplished everything in the last decade except win a state championship, the goals veteran St....

Orcutt named Student Athlete of the Month

January 30, 2019

January 30, 2019

St. Joseph-Ogden senior Joel Orcutt isn’t just a standout basketball player. He is also an artist. “I enjoy doing art...

SJO competitive cheer team has successful season

April 1, 2025

April 1, 2025

What an accomplished 2024-2025 season the SJO competitive cheer team has had. Starting in May 2024 this group of athletes...

SJO girls’ basketball wins regional title, sees season end in sectional semifinal defeat

March 5, 2024

March 5, 2024

The beginning of the season didn’t treat the St. Joseph-Ogden girls’ basketball team well.The Spartans slogged through the first month...

Knott, sprint relay shine at GCMS Invitational

April 24, 2019

April 24, 2019

The St. Joseph-Ogden High School boys’ track and field team went two weeks in between competitions. Blame Mother Nature for...

Landrus, Waller help SJO baseball get off to strong start

April 1, 2024

April 1, 2024

Playing a competitive schedule is nothing new for the St. Joseph-Ogden baseball team.Neither is racking up win after win after...

5 question Friday with SJO Tennis Coach Kevin Martlage

October 14, 2022

October 14, 2022

We asked SJO Tennis Coach Kevin Martlage five questions. Here are his answers. What does it mean to you to...

Wendling doesn’t give up, ready for state meet

February 14, 2019

February 14, 2019

When Jake Wendling first suffered a knee injury earlier this season, wrestling at the state meet didn’t seem likely. But...

Burnett, Rose help SJO baseball post three wins

April 22, 2019

April 22, 2019

The past week featured a bit of everything for the St. Joseph-Ogden High School baseball team. Solid pitching. Timely hitting....

Knap, Jones lead balanced SJO girls’ cross-country effort in Monticello

October 24, 2020

October 24, 2020

Consistent running is key for any cross-country team. Not having one runner separate themselves too far from their teammates or...

Primmer trying to keep hope as SJO baseball waits on possible start to season

April 7, 2020

April 7, 2020

Blake Primmer’s senior season wasn’t supposed to play out like this. As the St. Joseph-Ogden High School baseball team was...

Comments
Leave a Reply