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The Road to Peoria- 2A: Patriots Hold Back Central's Challenge

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Massac County let Breese Central hang around, but held off a late Cougars rally in the final 3:44 to advance to the Class 2A final four in Peoria with a 62-59 win Tuesday night at the Carbondale supersectional.

The game was close, Massac led 25-20 at the half, but the Patriots got separation in the third quarter.

Dustin Korte hit a 3-pointer for a 30-22 lead and Byron Bailey followed with a fast break slam dunk to give Massac a double-digit lead at 32-22.

Massac County went on to outscore Breese Central 18-13 in the third quarter to lead 43-33 heading into the final period.

The Patriots seemed to have the game in hand, ahead 47-37 midway through the fourth, but Keaton Scheer scored down low, Garrett Gaffner hit 1 of 2 at the line and freshman Brandon Book scored to force a MC timeout, the Pats leading 47-42 with 3:44 left.

The Patriots hung on, though, hitting 9 of 13 free throws down the stretch. Jarelle Johnson started the string of makes with two charity tosses for a 49-42 lead.

"They made some runs at us but our kids just seemed to make plays when they needed to," said Massac County coach Joe Hosman.

"The biggest key was they didn't kill us rebounding."

David Wiegmann scored for the Cougars, but Bailey rebounded his own miss for a 51-44 lead with 2:45 left. Gaffner followed with two hoops as Breese cut the lead to 53-48 with 1:45 left.

Breese Central got as close as 55-51 when Gaffner converted a three-point play with 1:25 left, but Breese didn't get any closer until the final score.

A Corey Ayala layin and two Bailey free throws clinched the game, Massac leading 59-51 with 1:01 to play.

Massac hit 21 of 40 shots against Breese Central's zone, led by Bailey and Korte. Bailey had 19 points and Korte 18.

The Cougars hit 25 of 46 shots and were led by Wiegmann's 20 points and Gaffner's 19.

The trip to the Class 2A Final Four will give longtime Massac coach Joe Hosman his first state trophy at the school.

Massac will play Marshall, 65-62 winners over Stanford Olympia, Friday night at 8:15 p.m. in Peoria.

MACOMB SUPER

Perfection was too much Olympia.

Marshall (31-0) got all it could handle from the Spartans in winning the Class 2A Macomb Supersectional 65-62 in overtime on Tuesday night at Western Hall.

"We're going to Peoria," said Marshall coach Tom Brannan, who was already wearing a red Marshall Final Four t-shirt in the post-game press conference.

That perfection was tested late in the game by Olympia (27-5).

The Spartans took their first lead of the game at the 3:22 mark of the fourth quarter when Brady Cremeens buried a 3-pointer from the right corner.

"I thought we had the gme won," Olympia coach Gerry Thornton said. "You're up three and have two fouls to give."

-Adam Duval, GNS

Massac County 15 10 18 19-62

Breese Central 10 10 13 26-59

Massac County (32-1) : Kester 1 0-3 2, Bailey 7 5-9 19, Ayala 3 5-7 11, Johnson 4 4-6 12, Korte 6 2-2 18, Totals 21 16-27 62.

Breese Central: Book 4 0-0 10, Gaffner 8 3-5 19, Wiegmann 9 2-3 20, Scheer 4 1-2 10, Totals 25 6-10 59.

3-pointers: Massac County 4 (Korte 4); Breese Central 3 (Book 2, Scheer). Team Fouls-Massac County 13, Breese Central 20.