Deryl Cunningham News Today

The Orphans advance to face either East St. Louis or Mount Vernon in the championship game Friday.

“I’ve been here for four years now playing varsity and I haven’t won much, so it feels really good that I finally got something under my belt,” senior Jake Ottensmeier said.

The Bulldogs have won four of their last five and have swept the season series against the Knights.

Marlon London is currently the assistant coach for the Eastern men’s basketball team.  London is from Broadview and played high school basketball at St. Joseph High School in Westchester.  At St. Joseph, London was coached by Gene Pingatore, the winningest high school basketball coach in the state of Illinois. Pingatore also coached NBA champion Isiah...

“Coach got on us in the locker room, made some adjustments and we picked up the pace a little bit ...,” said Jake Ottensmeier of the Bulldogs’ lackluster first half.

“... that was a hard-fought win right there,” the Eagles’ coach said.

Mascoutah has now won six of its last seven games.

Highland led until the final 10 seconds of the game.

“I told the guys that the bottom line was we found a way to finish and win the game,” Highland coach Deryl Cunningham said.

“I thought that they imposed their will a little bit more and I thought we wore down and I told our guys that,” the Bulldogs’ coach said.