By David Gross ’22

The young Leo Lions will have their hands full in their first trip downstate in a decade. The East St. Louis team they’ll face in the semifinals of the IHSA Class 3-A State Tournament on Friday has a 31-4 record, and an abundance of size and talent.

The Lions and the Flyers are separated by 300 miles, but they share a goal — a Class 3-A state championship. And they’ll meet roughly in the middle — State Farm Center on the University of Illinois campus in Champaign-Urbana. Tipoff is at 11:45 a.m. 

Maple Park Kaneland (35-0) and Deerfield (23-11) will square off in the other semifinal at 10 a.m., with the winners meeting for the 3-A title on Saturday at 4 p.m. The third-place game will be played Friday at 7 p.m.

The Lions are young, small and gritty, a guard-oriented team that loves to shoot the ball. East St. Louis, by comparison, is huge — the entire roster is at least 6-feet tall, and six players are 6-feet-4 or taller.

The Flyers rolled through the Southwestern Conference with an 11-1 record and edged Decatur MacArthur 51-49 in the Springfield Supersectional. Seeking a school-record 35th victory, MacArthur’s Generals trailed by double digits for much of the game. They battled back and cut  the lead to two in the final minute, but couldn’t get over the hump and suffered their second loss of the season. 

Senior guard Alex Johnson led the Flyers with a game-high 21 points, including the bucket that sealed their victory. Fellow senior Jamison White was an all-around contributor with 11 points, 17 rebounds and four blocks. 

White, a Penn State commit, averages 20 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks a game. Johnson averages 17 points a game, and junior guard Phillip Jones contributes 12 points and eight assists.

East St. Louis is rightfully known as a football powerhouse, with 11 state championships and an all-time roster that features 19 NFL pros, including Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow, Notre Dame All-American Jerome Heavens, Purdue All-American Cleveland Crosby, former Bear Bryan Cox and current Bear Luther Burden III. Five of the players from this past season’s 10-3 team that lost the 6-A state championship game to Fenwick received Division I scholarships. 

But the Flyers are getting the hang of this basketball business. They won a 3-A state championship in 2019 and have been back downstate twice in the last three years, finishing third in 2023. Darius Miles was the third overall pick of the 2000 NBA draft, by the Los Angeles Clippers.

Leo’s last trip downstate occurred in 2016, when the Darius Branch-led Lions lost the 1-A state title game to Leroy. The Lions’ lone state championship came in Class A in 2004, when the tournament was a two-class event.

“This is what you play for,” Leo Coach Jimalle Ridley said. “We’ll be ready.”