Charleston boys’ and girls’ basketball is now into the final stretch of the 2024-25 high school basketball season.

After a plethora of games rescheduled and cancelled due to weather conditions, both Trojan basketball teams prepare for the final months of the season and the Illinois High School Association playoffs.

Both teams know where they’ll play once the postseason starts. The boys have been assigned to play in the Marian High School sectional and will play at one of Effingham or Carbondale High School for the regional rounds.

The girls have been assigned to the Civic Memorial sectional and may have to play in the regional quarterfinals, also known as the play-in round.

If they win in that round, then they’d go either to Richland County High School or Triad High School, depending on how the Trojans get seeded by the IHSA.

Here’s how both teams’ season has progressed across the last few weeks.

Charleston Trojans Girls Basketball (3-17, 0-6):

Charleston used a 30-point effort from sophomore guard Sadie Phillips to get its first win of the season, a 68-51 win over Dieterich on Dec. 19.

The Trojans have played more complete games of basketball since then, according to head coach Alex Koebele, after starting the season with 11 straight losses.

Charleston is in last place in the Apollo Conference with four conference games to go.

While milestones such as a 20-win season and a conference championship would be nice according to Koebele, he says he doesn’t care about any of that.

We care about where we finish, about the [playoffs],” Koebele said.

With everyone back and healthy according to Koebele, Charleston played Champaign Central on Dec. 28 for the second time this season after playing the Maroons back in November at the North American Lighting Thanksgiving Tournament. In that game, the Trojans lost by 34 points.

However, after back-to-back losses of over 40 points the day prior, a fully healthy Trojan team took Champaign Central down to the wire, narrowly losing 51-50 before beating Jacksonville later that same day 53-38.

Koebele said that the loss to Champaign Central was an indication of how much progress the team has made so far this season.

“It’s not easy to lose games the way we have,” Koebele said. “We’ve been in a lot of games and played super hard, but we have high character ladies who come every day and work hard.”

Senior guard Brie Tomlinson, who was running the offense for most of the season, will transition to a more off-the-ball role allowing for Phillips to take over as the point guard, according to Koebele. He says his goal is to get the players to play every game down the stretch like it’s their last game of the season in preparation for the playoffs.

“I’m trying to get these seniors to understand how fast life goes,” Koebele said. “I think they kind of understand it because they can’t believe it’s already their second semester of their senior year, but I want them to enjoy this last month because we’re only guaranteed a month.”

The Trojans have a busy week in front of them, with four games in the next six days.

Charleston Trojans Boys Basketball (7-12, 1-3)

Charleston is playing its best basketball at the right time even in the midst of a losing skid, according to head coach Brian Deadmond.

Prior to the Trojans competing in the Salem Winter Invitational this weekend, the team was coming off losses to Centralia and Mt. Zion, two games that Deadmond says were the best performances of the season.

“I really feel like if we continue to play how we have been playing, we’ve got a good chance to win seven or eight games here down the stretch,” Deadmond said.

Senior guard Luke Bonnstetter and junior guard Tyler Oakley continue to be the Trojan’s main contributors offensively. Before Saturday, both players had combined to score double figures in all but two games this season.

Charleston is a team that loves to shoot from three-point range but has started to transition its offense with Bonnstetter and Oakley driving to the basket more and opening up looks for other guys.

According to Deadmond, Andrew Kukykendall is starting to shoot the ball very well, and senior forward Mason Redfern is becoming the team’s most improved player and a leader.

Deadmond says with the way the team operates, he can usually tell how a game is going to go based on how well the team shoots in warm-ups.

“That’s something that I try and keep an eye on,” Deadmond said.

The Trojans are a bit of a wild card, said Dedmond, that has the ability to upset a higher ranked team on any given night and win seven or eight games down the stretch of the season depending on how well the team can shoot and put themselves in good positions to grab rebounds.

“We’ve got a lot of games that we can win,” Deadmond said. “Hopefully, we go out and we play at our ability level where we should play and we get some wins here toward the end of the season.”

Charleston took seventh place in the Salem tournament.

Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at ghnewman@eiu.edu.