(3-9-25) Eastland (32-4) won the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) 1A Sectional title on Friday night, defeating Pecatonica (33-3) by a score of 36-31.
What many consider an upset surprise, and how did the Cougars pull it off? They must have adopted this tactic after seeing the 1983 film WarGames.
“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?
After Friday night’s opening tip, Eastland (32-4) took the first possession of the game and, for the first 6:59 of the game, they stood there with the ball close to midcourt. It proved to be the proper course of action.
During the regular season the two NUIC teams played each other with the Indians winning 67-36 (12-19-24) and 63-55 (1-18-25).
Eastland coach Tyler Zumdahl told Sports Illustrated after the game-
“We’ve got off to terrible starts the first two times, so we had to do something different. We had to slow the tempo down. We were still willing to score if they were willing to guard. They didn’t want to do that so we kinda rolled with it. And the guys executed. They didn’t get rattled. They stayed the course. And got it done.”
Pecatonica led 1-0 at the end of the first quarter. (scoring 2nd qtr – Eastland 8-5, at halftime Eastland 22-19)
The Cougars’ defense would only allow 31 points against Illinois’ top-scoring 1A team (74.9 points per game).The Indians have scored over 80 points 13 times this season and over 90 points three times, including a 102-52 victory over Forreston on February 4 and a 113-30 victory against Durand on January 27.
Next up for Eastland…Aurora Christian, who defeated Hinckley-Big Rock 57-54 in their regional final, will play them Monday night at Northern Illinois in the Super-regional.
