A busy day of girls hoops featured many squads wrapping up Thanksgiving tournaments while El Paso-Gridley football fell in the 2A state semis.

Blowout wins and Intercity action headlined Friday's schedule of girls basketball

Four HOIC squads picked up wins, Manual and PND stayed hot, Washington opened its season with a win and Metamora's Michaela Hurst reached a coaching milestone.

Five area girls hoops teams were victorious on Saturday, including Dee-Mack, Canton and Illini Bluffs.

Morton's Jamie King and Dunlap's Kevin Metzger both won their first games under new head coaches, plus several area stars had double-doubles, set new records and reached big milestones.

The first day of games in the girls basketball season featured wins from 12 area teams, including PND, Manual, Tremont, Canton, Richwoods and more.

Tremont, Bloomington Central Catholic and Normal U-High volleyball all advanced to this weekend's IHSA State Finals.

State cross country, thrilling playoff football games, Washington soccer's state title game going to penalty kicks and sectional swimming made for a huge day of prep sports.

Normal Community, Normal U-High, Washington, Bloomington Central Catholic and Tremont all advanced to the Elite 8 in their respective classes in volleyball.

Peoria Notre Dame, Morton, and Heyworth were among eight volleyball teams to advance to sectional titles and Normal Community soccer fell one step short of state.

Central Illinois' football, soccer and cross country teams flexed their muscles with strong postseason performances.

Dunlap, Washington and PND all comfortably moved on to the second round of the playoffs in football.

Washington and Tremont pulled off upsets to win regional titles and four teams from Bloomington/Normal were among the 11 area squads to win regional crowns.

Washington and Normal West soccer moved on to the sweet 16 in Class 2A and several 1A volleyball teams advanced in the playoffs.

Dunlap and Normal Community advanced to sectional titles in soccer and nearly 20 area volleyball teams stayed alive in the postseason.

Several Class 1A and 2A volleyball teams from the area began postseason play with victories.

Dunlap tennis wrapped up at state, cross country regionals featured several area winners while Eureka volleyball and Washington swim won conference titles

Washington and Peoria High won conference titles, Dunlap prevailed in OT, and three small schools reached 9-0 in the final week of the football regular season. Five boys soccer teams won regional crowns and Dunlap girls tennis continued to flourish at state.

Volleyball regular seasons wrapped up with BCC and Limestone clinching outright conference titles. Dunlap led the way after the first day of the girls tennis state finals.

Boys soccer regional semifinals and the HOIC Tournament in volleyball were just some of the many key games on an intriguing Tuesday in the area.