Both players and coaches at Christ Lutheran and Our Savior's are laying a public claim to the 2020 LSA CIL regular season championship.
In a middle school season played in the midst of a worldwide influenza spread, why wouldn’t a controversy exist in regards to a conference championship?
Following its 69-50 victory over Concordia Peoria Tuesday evening, Christ Lutheran's players and coaches conducted the classic celebration that goes with earning a regular season championship. Confetti dumped onto the playing floor, followed not long after the Comets coaches and players cut the nets down. With the blowout win over their in-state rival, No. 2 Christ Lutheran (19-2, 14-2) had clinched the best winning percentage of the LSA CIL Conference and the top seed in the upcoming LSA CIL Conference Tournament.
Normally, all of those things would translate into an outright league championship but in a year filled with program’s forced to execute Influenza pauses, including Christ Lutheran itself from Jan. 23 to Feb. 14, the players and coaches at Our Savior's are putting in a public claim for a co-championship.
With it's 73-68 win at No.7 Bethel Morton on Thursday, No.4 Our Savior's (20-6. 16-4) guaranteed they'd have more conference wins than any other league member. Therefore, the Eagles' players feel they should get to add the year '2020' to there collection, honoring the past Eagles' 4 regular season conference titles.
"I think when it's all said and done, we will be co-champions," Our Savior's Veteran guard Jace Easley said Thursday. "We believe we're CIL Champions," the all-time leading scorer in program history said.
Easley, a Player of the Year semifinalist finished the regular season with per game averages of 24.9 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 6.2 assists. He is the only player in the LSA over the last 11 seasoms to average at least 24 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists.
When asked about what he thought of Christ Lutheran's celebration two nights earlier in relation to what the team has accomplished at Bethel Morton, Our Savior's Team Representive and Captain Conor McCaffrey didn't hide his feelings on the matter.
"I know we've won 16 games and we've played all 20," McCaffrey said. "We all knew this was going to be a tough situation, but all I know is that nobody has won more games than us and we've played them all."
Christ Lutheran will end its 2019-2020 regular season schedule today with a road game at Concordia Peoria, as they look to sweep this rivalry home-and-home in a four day period. The Comets will not be the only CIL program to complete less than the originally scheduled 20 league games ( Our Savior's Jacksonville, Mount Pulaski and Mount Zion all played 19) but their 17-game slate is the lowest total of all of the 14 league's members. It should also be noted Christ Lutheran's women's team managed to play 18 league games including five contests in the final 12 days of February.
However, the LSA CIL Conference athletics directors and Council of President and Chancellors agreed before the beginning of the 2020 season to determine the league's regular season champion by overall winning percentage rightfully assuming the illness's would cause the programs to play less games.
The 16 league victories for Our Savior's reprsents the most ever in the history of the program and the Eagles' 29 CIL Conference Wins over the last two seasons is the most in consectutive seasons in Eagles history, (2004-2005, 28-4).