Even though the Carbondale Terriers scored an imposing 66 points on Saturday, the Urbana Tigers still came out on top. Urbana skirted past Carbondale 68-66. The victory was all the more spectacular given Urbana's disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 428th, while Carbondale is ranked 183rd).
Despite the loss, Carbondale still got an impressive performance from Decarl Payne, who scored 31 points. The game was Payne's tenth in a row with at least ten points.
Urbana is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 3-5 record this season. As for Carbondale, they have not been sharp recently, as they've lost four of their last five contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 5-5 record this season.
Urbana will have some time to savor their win since their next game is a little ways off: they'll take on Bloomington at 7:00 p.m. on January 5, 2024. As for Carbondale, they will head out on the road to face off against Centralia at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Centralia is currently enjoying a perfect season and no doubt want to keep things rolling.
