But the Panthers would prevail with a 47-30 win. "For whatever reason, we were out of sync, so you've got to give Washington a lot of credit," stated the Knight's head coach, Mike Ellis.

Maybe the tone of the contest was set when the Panther's Dyricus Simms-Edwards opened the second quarter scoring with a jam to go up 13-10. Simms-Edwards had 12 in the first half, giving Washington a 25-15 margin at the break.

Richwoods out-scored Washington 9-5 in the third period and pulled to within six at 30-24. With 4:35 to go, Washington's Ben Worner hit a three from the corner that stretched the Panther's lead to 13 at 39-26.

With both team's subs in the game for the final 1:33, Washington extended their lead to 17 and the final score of 47-30, to send the Panthers to the championship round against the Moline Maroons. The Knights would meet the Freeport Pretzels in the third place game also on Wednesday.

Early in the first quarter, Washington went to a zone defense. "We had no intention of playing zone tonight," Panther head coach Kevin Brown said. It was a successful move that kept Richwoods penetration down.

"Our kids did a great job of stepping up and getting rebounds," Brown continued. Washington had 26 rebounds to Richwood's 19. Turnovers were even at eight.

In the first three minutes, the Raiders jumped out to a 9-2 lead on a Jacoby Cotton trey. But Morton's Drake Taphorn's three-point shooting set up a 16 all tie at the close of the first frame. At the break, East Peoria held on to a three-point lead at 31-28.

The Potters outscored the East Peoria 23 to 14 in the third quarter, leading 51-45 at the close of the period. With 3:22 left in the fourth period, a Bryce Donaldson layup put the Raiders back on top for good at 54-53.

With :45.9 left in the game, the Potters had battled back to at three-point deficit at 62-59. A Morton foul put Joe Kelch on the line where he made one of two (63-59).

A Kelch steal with :26.4 to go led to another foul and Kelch went 1-2 again (64-59). With :14.0 to go, Donaldson was fouled and made two of two to lead 66-59, which pretty much sealed the Potter's fate. Will Headean rounded out his 12 points with a three at the buzzer to make the final 66-62 Raiders.

Donaldson had 24 for the Raiders, including two threes. Kelch hit five treys and 17 total points for the game. Taphorn came off the bench for 15, including three from beyond the arc, to lead the Potter's scoring. Headean had a total of 12 with a pair of threes.

The win gives East Peoria a 2-1 record in the Mid-Illini and an overall record of 4-3. The Raiders visit Woodruff on Saturday and are headed to the Carbondale Holiday Tournament, where they meet H. L. Richards High School from Oak Lawn, Illinois, on December 27^th.

Kevin Waibel picked up his third foul with 5:14 left in the first half. Waibel eventually fouled out.

With 2.8 seconds left in the half, the Eagles picked up a player technical foul in the huddle sending the Potter's Will Headean to the line scoring the free throw. Headean had 11 first half points. Morton led Dunlap 38-7 at the half.

Wes Noel opened the second half scoring with a three and started a Dunlap comeback that cut the Potter's lead to 22 at the close of the third quarter.

Noel made a layup with 3:17 left in the game to cut Morton's lead to 17 at 54-37. Noel scored a three from the corner followed by a pair of made free throws by Drew Heinzmann to cut the lead to 14 at 56-42 with 1:56 left in the game. Another Eagles three with :35.8 left made the score 57-45 Morton an that was as close as Dunlap would get.