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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s going on around the area:
Members of The News-Gazette’s 2025 First-Team All-Area boys’ soccer choices gather in the newspaper’s newsroom on Nov. 12 in Champaign. Clockwise, from top right are Adam Perez from Danville, Nadav Gal from Urbana, Aldo Zepeda from Uni High, Steven Newman from St. Joseph-Ogden, Mason Swartz from Oakwood/Salt Fork, Zach Harper from St. Joseph-Ogden, Colin Jackson from Mahomet-Seymour, Noah Rice from Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin, Raymond Zhang from Champaign Central, Isaac Ramos from Centennial and Simonas Ankstutis from Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Westville.
Three reasons we love sports today
➜ 1. Many thanks to the dozens of high school fall sports athletes who, through the effort of preps coordinator Zach Piatt, have stopped by our office in the last six weeks to take part in The News-Gazette’s All-Area First Team photo shoots.
➜ 2. The last one happened this past Sunday with football and volleyball athletes descending upon Champaign. Our 48th All-Area volleyball team is set to appear in these pages on Saturday, while our All-Area football team is scheduled to run on Friday, Dec. 26.
➜ 3. Sandwiched in between those two is our 44th All-State volleyball team. Illini beat writer Scott Richey has helped select the team of 186 players for a decade, and his latest will appear on Christmas Eve.
Kylan Boswell and the Illini have given up at least 80 points in their last two games.
Numbers game: 71.5
points the Illinois men’s basketball team is allowing this season. Entering Tuesday’s slate of games, that was tied for 142nd in the country along with Coastal Carolina and 10th in the Big Ten. The Illini are averaging 87.8 points, however, which is good for 37th in the country and second in the Big Ten only behind Michigan (94.7).
Former Illini Ayo Dosunmu and the Bulls host the Cavaliers on Wednesday night.
Crowd control
Three events I’m paying attention to
➜ 1. Cleveland Cavaliers at Chicago Bulls. A thumb injury has sidelined former Illini Ayo Dosunmu during the Bulls’ last two games, but he is averaging 15.2 points before Wednesday’s 7 p.m. tip.
➜ 2. Memphis Grizzlies at Minnesota Timberwolves. Former Illini Terrence Shannon Jr. is averaging 4.8 points in 14 minutes off the bench for the Timberwolves this season before they host the Grizzlies at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
➜ 3. Washington Wizards at San Antonio Spurs. Former Illini and Wizards rookie Will Riley has hit double figures in three games this month — his first three of his NBA career — and will try to get another when this game tips off at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Urbana senior Vinny Benjamin competes in cross-country and track and field for the Tigers.
Ask an athlete
Three questions with Urbana senior Vinny Benjamin, who competes in cross-country and track and field for the Tigers:
➜ 1. Three athletes I’d like to have dinner with are … LeBron James, Jalen Hurts and Bryce Harper.
➜ 2. The TV show I most like to binge-watch is … “The Simpsons.”
➜ 3. My biggest pet peeve is … when people unironically use acronyms in real life.
