03/14/2026
BY JACK BULLOCK
CHAMPAIGN - If the Goreville Blackcats are to win the state championship Saturday, they will have to beat a team from the Chicago Public League, something that will definitely be a first.

Chicago Marshall owns three boy's state basketball championships, all in large school versions.

Marshall won titles in 1958 and again in 1960 back when the state was still a single class tournament and added a 3A title in 2007-08, the first season of four-class basketball.

Long time basketball fans can also look back to the 1991 season when Marshall reached the Class AA Elite Eight.

Part of their run was documented in the award winning documentary “Hoop Dreams.”

They have played a mostly large school schedule and they didn't face a 1A school until the state tournament started.

Marshall is now 6-0 in their tournament run to reach the championship game.

Two of the schools they played made it to Champaign.

Coach Darrin Laye's team beat 2A Chicago Farragut and lost to 3A Chicago Leo.

The Commandos are not a high scoring unit, averaging 59.2 point a game and have just two players producing double-figures in scoring.

Darrin Laye, Jr., the coaches' son, is a 5-11 sophomore who paces the crew with 16.0 a game and 6-1 junior Rayvon Myles with 11.5 p.p.g.

But the top scorer in Marshall's 66-38 thumping of Lanark-Eastland in the semifinals was Quinton Gibson, Jr., a 6-2 senior forward, who scored 20 in the victory.

Junior 5-8 guard Edward Humes and 6-6 senior Amari Cornell are both offensive weapons and Amari Kennedy, a 6-4 junior, added to the rebounding pounding that they gave Lanark-Eastland, grabbing eight of the Commandos' 36-rebounds on Thursday.

Goreville have used sharp outside shooting and pressure defense to reach the title game for Coach Todd Tripp.

Junior guard Nick King, senior guards Zech Green and Garrett Church have produced the points this postseason.

They ran a gauntlet of tough southern Illinois teams to get to this point, beating Sparta and Waltonville to win the Trico Sectional and then traveled a light year north to Jacksonville to take down Routt Catholic.

They added their fourth victory Lawrenceville in the semifinals.

All four of those teams posted a combined 125-18 record with all four going over 30-wins.

“This is why we do it. This is what you shoot for, and we've had many teams that I felt like were good enough to be here,” said Coach Tripp. “But this team got it done this year, and I think they're going it for all of those teams. So, it's exciting for me, our community and my family. I'm pretty happy.”