MT. STERLING, Ill. — Two local teams coming off great seasons and with high expectations for the 2025-26 season were back in action this past Monday with the Brown County and Illini West boys basketball teams facing off in the Hornets shootout.

Both teams went a combined 48-19 last season and have a good nucleus returning next season. The two teams faced each other on Monday with the Hornets pulling out a 42-37 win over the Chargers.

“We had just got back from Chicago after playing tough competition, so I think our legs were a little weary,” said Hornets head coach Jeff Bottorff. “We weren’t very sharp in the first half, we picked it up in the second half.”

Illini West had an opportunity to tie with under a minute left in the game trailing 40-37 getting a great corner 3-point shot look at the basket, but missed and had to foul right after.

“We went on a bad spirt in the second half but we had chances to get back into it late we just didn’t convert on a couple things, but it was fun,” said Chargers head coach Blaize Kimmell. “I enjoy facing those coaches two good basketball teams in this area.”

Illini West was able to redeem themselves defeating Beardstown later on. The Chargers struggled early trailing 17-15 at halftime, but dominated the Tigers 28-9 in the second half to win 43-26.

“Beardstown, I wanted to get some of our younger guys in there that don’t play much, we knew Brown County would be a tough one,” said Kimmell. “We picked them up in the regular season so I’m excited about that. We got to play two teams that are competitive. We go to the Dells next week, so I wanted to play some local teams to see where we’re at.”

Bottorff on what his focus is in summer workouts and games.

“Summer is a great opportunity to play around with different things, we’ll run some different things offensively, we’ll put guys in different positions to really help prepare them for things they’ll see during the season,” Bottorff said. “Illini West is always going to be tough, they’re going to be physical, defend. Coach Kimmell always has them playing really tough defense, which is good for our guys to have to deal with some of that.”

The two teams met once last season ending in a competitive game that saw the Chargers get the win 48-39. They’ll meet again next winter in what seems to be another great matchup between the two teams.

“We’re very blessed, lot of returning pieces from last year,” said Bottorff. “We’ve had a good summer, we’ve played a lot of ball and we’ve learned some things so I feel really good going into next year.”