Madison defeats Lewistown in supersectional
JACKSONVILLE, ILL. — With Eric Mason playing at only 70 percent because of a badly sprained left ankle and Xavier Williams out for undisclosed reasons Tuesday night, the Madison boys basketball team still managed to down Lewistown and make the school’s first trip to the Illinois state tournament in 13 years.
Kendall Echols had a team-high 12 points, Delandus Farrar contributed 10 and Mason added eight (all in the second half) and six rebounds as the Trojans defeated the Indians 48-45 to win the Illinois Class 1A Jacksonville Supersectional at The Bowl.
Madison, No. 7 in the Post-Dispatch small-schools rankings and No. 6 in the Associated Press Class 1A state poll, improved to 23-7 and will play Sesser-Valier (25-9) in the semifinals at Carver Arena in Peoria at 2 p.m. Friday. Sesser defeated Woodlawn 53-44 in overtime Tuesday night to win the Salem Supersectional.
“It feels good. I can’t even cry,” Mason said. “I gave it my all. I gave it my all. It was a lot of pain. I had a lot of pain, but …”
It was obvious from the outset that the 6-foot-5 Mason wasn’t 100 percent. But that didn’t matter to the Trojans, who were outsized by Lewistown, a third-place finisher at state last season. The Indians’ tallest player — 6-9 Joseph Jugovic — did give Madison fits inside. He finished with 25 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.
Jugovic inflicted most of his damage when Mason was out in the second quarter with two fouls. The senior poured in 10 points, although his team trailed 23-21 at halftime.
Then in the fourth quarter during a scramble just to the left of the basket, Mason went down again and headed to the bench with 6 minutes 44 seconds to go with the Trojans in front 35-30.
Madison coach Jaime Cotto said he was more concerned about Mason’s availability than he was with the size of Jugovic.
“If Eric could go, I knew we could stop him,” Cotto said of Jugovic.
Mason did, and the Trojans did, except for one quarter. Even when Mason went down in the fourth, Jugovic managed only two free throws and a basket as Mason was out for 3:46. For the game, Jugovic was 11 of 19 from the field.
And even with Mason on the bench, Madison was able to grab a 43-35 advantage with 4:09 remaining. But the Indians came charging back with a 6-0 run to trim the deficit to 43-41 with 2:10 left. Mason came back in and answered with a conventional three-point play to extend the advantage to 46-41 with 1:56 to go.
Lewistown closed to 47-45 with 15.5 seconds left and later had two 3-point attempts in the final five seconds with a chance to tie the game but missed both.
