GALESBURG — Cole DuBois was ready to go and no one was stopping him.
The East Peoria junior started in Friday’s 68-57 win over Peoria High for the Class 3A Galesburg Regional championship, coming off a broken shooting hand from just 13 days ago. He missed four games, including Wednesday’s regional semifinal win over Washington.
DuBois, though, had zero intentions of sitting out East Peoria’s chance of ending a 29-year postseason drought. He may have scored just five points on 2-of-7 shooting, but added a pair of pretty assists to classmate Quinton Kitt, who scored 37 points.
“I just wanted to play with my brothers,” DuBois, a 5-foot-11 guard said, wearing heavy tape on his right hand. “I wasn’t going to miss it, so being out there and playing again, it was everything.”
According to DuBois, his doctor cleared him on Thursday morning, telling DuBois, ‘if it was my son, he would play.’
“I think it just calmed the waters,” East Peoria coach Jarrett Brown said regarding the return of his Division-I prospect. “He’s got 1,600 points and 90-plus starts and 220-some made 3s, so he’s a problem for other people.
“Just his presence. He’s one of the brothers, and he’s supposed to be on the floor. It gave us a punch, that’s for sure.”
Now, DuBois is forever part of East Peoria history.
“Ever since we lost last year,” he said, “we were talking about this day and this game. … We felt like if we had the chance, we could beat them on any night, and we showed that tonight.”
Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: East Peoria standout returns to play regional final with broken hand
Reporting by Adam Duvall, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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