'Redemption Tour': Illini Bluffs boys basketball team wins Class 1A sectional championship

ABINGDON — Hank Alvey and the Illini Bluffs boys team were in concert Friday in the IHSA playoffs with a big win over Camp Point Central in the Class 1A Abingdon Sectional championship game .

The 6-foot-9 senior center put up a game-best 24 points — including a 10-of-10 effort at the free throw line — and grabbed eight rebounds to lead Illini Bluffs to a 47-35 win over Camp Point Central that kept alive IB's mission to reach center stage at the state finals.

The victory put the No. 2-ranked Tigers (33-3) back in a supersectional at 7 p.m. Monday in Jacksonville, where they will face Winchester West Central (33-3). The Illini Bluffs girls team, meanwhile, plays in the state championship on Saturday. The boys hope to follow.

The entire 2023-24 Illini Bluffs boys season has been about that supersectional. Last year's, and next week's.

"We call this The Redemption Tour," IB head coach Clay Vass said. "That's what we've called it all season. It's everything we've worked for this season, to get back to that supersectional game. We felt like we needed to win every game.

"It's our mission."

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Vass, Alvey and the Illini Bluffs team built this season from the sting of the 2023 Jacksonville supersectional. That early March night saw the Tigers build an eight-point fourth-quarter lead, and come seconds away from their first-ever state finals appearance.

Then Waterloo Gibault's Kameron Hanvey tossed up a desperate 28-footer at the buzzer and it went in to beat IB, 45-44.

"It was such a heartbreaker for us," Alvey said. "It's something you just don't ever forget. We came so close, so now we're on this Redemption Tour and we're back for a second chance."

It will be a last chance for Alvey, who heads to Lehigh University to play basketball next season.

Camp Point Central just didn't have anyone who could match up with him. They double-teamed him, they rotated Cole Peterson and Kadin Niekamp on him, and the tandem combined for nine fouls.

"It's just how it goes," Alvey said, grinning. "I'm a 6-9 guy (in Class 1A) and teams haven't been able to stop me. They were hanging on me tonight."

Alvey scored six points in the first quarter, all from the free throw line, as Illini Bluffs finished with a 13-0 run over the final 4:39 for a 15-6 lead.

The Tigers lob-passed to Alvey in the low paint in the second quarter, and he hit short jumpers three times.

But Camp Point Central countered with a 10-0 run to the buzzer to shock IB for a 25-22 halftime lead. Panthers senior guard Nick Moore delivered eight points in that quarter, including a pair of 3s, and it looked like the game was turned.

"You gotta talk, and you gotta believe right now ," Camp Point Central coach James Barnett told his team as they huddled moments before the second half began. "Let's go."

But Alvey believed, too, and Illini Bluffs went right back to tossing the ball to him in the paint, watching as he backed his defenders down, then turned and put in short jumpers.

He did that three times in the first 4:37 of the third quarter, while Camp Point Central burned three possessions with turnovers. When Alvey hit a pair of free throws with 26.1 seconds left the Tigers had banked a 15-4 quarter and were in control, 37-29.

Moore brought Camp Point Central (25-9) back with three jumpers in the first 3:23 of the fourth quarter to get within four. But the Panthers never scored again, while Alvey hit another short jumper and IB kept the game out of reach at the free throw line (13-of-20).

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Illini Bluffs 6-foot-4 junior guard Toby Cooper added 11 points.

Moore had 18 points, accounting for more than half the Panthers' production. Camp Point was whistled for 21 fouls.

When it was over, Alvey let out a warrior scream and led his teammates to the other end of the gym, where the sectional championship plaque was mounted on a wall, waiting for the Tigers to take it.

They did, as the IB students rushed the floor and joined them. For a moment, Alvey was covered. But he thrust the plaque high in the air, and later had a kid on his shoulders and signed autographs as the celebration continued on the floor.

"It's just a ton of emotions for us," Alvey said. "No one wants to go home. We want to keep the Redemption Tour going to Champaign, and take care of business there."

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: 'Redemption Tour': Illini Bluffs boys basketball team wins Class 1A sectional championship