If there is a chair seat on the front row by the front door in heaven, you can bet George Tinsley was settled in it Friday night to watch the Sesser Red Devils play Meridian for the sectional championship.

There was no way he was missing this one.

The Sesser-Valier Red Devils weren't fazed when Woodlawn took its first lead of the game with 5:20 remaining in the Salem Class 1A Super-Sectional Tuesday night. They weren't even fazed when they fell behind by a bucket with just over a minute left and the Cardinals at the line. And they weren't fazed when they didn't get a shot off at the end of regulation, settling for overtime.

Instead, they regrouped and took control of their own destiny, dominating the extra period and punching their ticket to the Class 1A state tournament in Peoria with a 53-44 win.

Maybe winning games like this is just a phase they're going through.

Advanced tickets for Friday's Class 1A state semifinal game in Peoria at 2 p.m. will go on sale Wednesday in the high school office to the following schedule:

9 a.m. — Parents of players and parents of cheerleaders may purchase tickets — a limit of 6 tickets per person;

Du Quoin’s 29-year run as “Home of the World Trotting Derby” has ended with the state’s decision to cancel both the 2010 derby and its companion World Trotting Derby Filly Division.

Eliminating the World Trotting Derby and other high ticket stakes is a move seen by many as a $1 million Du Quoin State Fair budget cut that will certainly leave Southern Illinois nervous about the future of the fair itself.

Du Quoin State Fair manager John Rednour told the Du Quoin Evening Call late Wednesday his administrative staff is on track for a full 10-day fair in 2010 which would run from Friday, Aug. 28, through Labor Day on Sept. 6.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig says it's too soon to determine whether a blood test for human growth hormone can be used for minor leaguers.

The United Kingdom Anti-Doping authority announced a two-year ban on Feb. 23 for rugby player Terry Newton, saying he had tested positive and was the first athlete suspended for using HGH.

In one rapid-fire motion, Woodlawn High School boys basketball coach Shane Witzel whirled Casey Hammond around in his arms Friday night.

Which was about all the emotion that remained in the Cardinals’ arsenal after 36 minutes of Class 1A sectional championship madness.

Sectional Championships
Class 1A
At Red Hill
Woodlawn 61, Cumberland 60  OT

At Eldorado
Sesser-Valier 64, Mounds Meridian 54

Sesser-Valier handled the Meridian pressure. And the Red Devils got the ball to Justin Matyi.

And that added up to a 64-54 win over the Bobcats in the sectional championship game at Eldorado Friday night.

Sesser-Valier will play in its first super-sectional game in school history Tuesday night in Salem.
The Devils will face Woodlawn, 61-60 overtime winners over Toledo Cumberland at Red Hill Friday night. The win was Woodlawn's 20th straight. The last team to beat the Cardinals was Sesser.

There’s one really good reason to like the Sesser and Woodlawn boys basketball teams — they’re making me look like a genius.

So far.

Justin Matyi might have had what Sesser-Valier coach Chip Basso called a “quiet” 29 points, against Carrier Mills in the Eldorado sectional semis Wednesday night, but his performance spoke pretty loudly down the stretch.

Matyi scored 16 in the second half and hit 5 of 6 freebies in the waning moments to help the Red Devils advance to the sectional finals against Meridian Friday night with a 52-42 win.

Meridian took advantage of Trico’s slow shooting second quarter to take control of its sectional semifinal game at Eldorado Tuesday night.

The Bobcats used the big second period to erase an 11-point deficit and take the lead for good in a 55-52 win.

The win was the first sectional victory for Meridian since 1972.

Led by five Indoor State qualifiers, the Benton girls track team opened its indoor season at the Western Indiana Indoor Invitational at DePauw University over the weekend.

Junior Sydney Potts qualified for Indoor State in three events. Individually, she was second in the high jump ( 4 feet 10 inches), and third in the 55-meter high hurdles (9.28). Potts also teamed up with Madaline Parrish, Kaitlyn Schutt and Lindsay Hathcoat to take second in the 4x400 relay (4:27.54). The relay time was the second best in BCHS indoor history.

Bloomington Central Catholic has held off a late Quincy-Notre Dame comeback attempt to claim the Class 2A girls state basketball title with a 64-58 victory.

Allie Norton calmly hit four straight free throws in the final 18 seconds Saturday night at Redbird Arena in Normal. She closed with a game-high 27 points for the Saints (32-1) while teammate Jess Reinhart added 19.

I was having a good weekend until it happened. I’m not obsessed with the Olympics or with hockey for that matter, but if you weren’t glued to the screen for the gold medal match between US and Canada Sunday ... all I can say is love it or leave it.

Let me go back a couple of days first.

The date was Feb. 12, 2010. Sesser-Valier built a 10-point first half lead over Waltonville. And although the Red Devils ended up losing, it was almost as if a light had gone off.

While most observers, including a number of their own fans, had generally ceded the Class 1A Crab Orchard Regional to the top-seeded Spartans, the Red Devils simply turned up their play another notch.

Following an easy win over outmanned Thompsonville, the Red Devils returned Thursday night to short circuit Crab Orchard by 33, a team that had only lost a handful of games this season.

Since that Feb. 12 game in Waltonville, the two-time defending regional champs had reeled off five straight wins. Make that three-time regional champions as the Red Devils dominated the Spartans 83-60 in possibly their most impressive win in the last three seasons.