Saturday was a big college hoops day, with 93 Illinois high school basketball players in action across Division I teams. Twenty-one players scored in double digits, with two double-doubles and two other 20-point scorers.
Some notable performances are below, as well as all box scores at the bottom in sortable tables. You can also view all Division I men from Illinois and Division I women from Illinois.
In a family line of immensely successful athletes, the Morrow sisters Aneesah and Nazlah Morrow stand poised to be the next up to leave an impact on their respective sport. Aneesah, a 6-2 combo player and defending state champion for Simeon, made her verbal commitment to the DePaul Blue Demons on Saturday.
Demonstrating finesse and power on the hardwood as a junior — Aneesah Morrow averaged 23 points, 3.6 assists, 12.1 rebounds, 3.7 steals and 2.5 blocks per game for the 35-2 Wolverines — her coaches see tremendous upside in her. The Class of 2021 star came up big for the city and 3A champion Wolverines, posting a 22-point, 13-rebound effort in the state semifinals, propelling Johnny Davenport-coached Simeon to a state title win over Morton.
“I hope she comes out and (can) be an even stronger impact player than she was for our program,” Baylor Youth Foundation Director Toi Baylor said of Aneesah Morrow. “Hopefully she can make it overseas and into the WNBA because she’s that type of player.”
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Tim Flowers was seven years old when he first saw someone killed in his neighborhood.
Flowers, now 32, had a long-time friend shot and killed in just the past few weeks on Chicago’s South Side. Gun violence and its effects on his community — Englewood, where he grew up and now lives again — have been a near constant in his life. That violence and a desire to show young people “we shouldn’t be living like this” is a driving force in Flowers’ motivation for organizing the Soaring Above All Odds rally on Saturday, September 19, at Murray Park in Englewood.
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