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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Sunday, June 29, 2008 11:08 PM CDT
Winnebago's revenge wins EIU camp title

By JG/T-C staff
sports@jg-tc.com

CHARLESTON -- Losing its first two weekend games on last-second shots, Winnebago left itself more margin for error on Sunday.

Winnebago avenged its first loss by beating Crystal Lake South Green 36-28 in the championship game of the Blue Division of the Eastern Illinois high school basketball team camp.

This came after Winnebago lost to that Crystal Lake team on a last-second 3-pointer and then missed a last-second shot losing to McHenry in its second game.

From there Winnebago went 5-0 in league play and won three tournament games.

That has to be a good sign for a team that lost nine seniors from a 25-3 team that reached the IHSA Class 2A sectional finals last winter.

“We’re really young,” Winnebago coach Joe Murphy said. “We only have two seniors. We improved a ton through camp.”

Perhaps the Winnebago leader now is 6-foot-6 Chas Cross, who is going to be a junior.

After breaking his hand and not being able to play AAU ball last summer, Cross might just be getting on college recruiters’ radar screens.

Making himself known to EIU coaches at camp this week was Winnebago’s Marcus Posley, who is just going to be a freshman.

“He’s still learning but he’s really quick and athletic,” Murphy said.

Winnebago, which also had a Black team play in the Silver Division, put its Orange entry in the Blue Division with some bigger schools and the division with those considered the best at the three-day EIU camp even though it is just a Class 2A team in Illinois’ four-class system.

“We want to play the best teams we can in the summer,” said Murphy, whose team was playing its 35th game of the summer. “It doesn’t do us any good to play somebody you can rip on.”

— Brian Nielsen

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