St. John Hornets take regional championship

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The St. John Hornets took their second consecutive regional championship on Monday, Feb. 2. The Hornets took on Pinckneyville, who had a 25-2 record going into regionals. With a 68-57 final score, the Hornets took the regional title and will move on to the State Tournament held at Rend Lake College. The game will take place at 1:15 on Saturday, Feb. 7.

The Hornets opened up on Pinckneyville in the first coming out of the quarter on top, 17-10.

Pinckneyville came back to claim the second quarter, giving the Hornets a 2-point deficit at the half time buzzer. The Hornets scored 14-points while allowing 23-points to be taken in the second. The score at the half was 33-31, Pinckneyville.

The Hornets came out on top of the third and would not give it up again. They took 18-points while only allowing 13 in. The quarter ended with the Hornets up by 3, with a score of 49-46.

The final buzzer found the Hornets as regional champs. They took a game high 19-points in the fourth; all the while defending fiercely, allowing 11-points in.

Leading the team was Jacob Lochhead with 27-points, three of which were from outside. Austin Barnhart took in 18 points, killing 14 of them in the first half, all the while snagging ten rebounds and two steals. Dalton Misuraca took 15-points and scooped up nine rebounds. Chris Shwartz took 5-points and six rebounds while Caleb Arbeiter took 3-points and had four steals.