A former Waterloo High School hoops standout will play in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament in St. Louis this weekend as a key member of the University of Illinois-Springfield men’s basketball squad.

The tourney takes place March 5-8 on the campus of University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Alex Stell is a 6-foot-10 freshman for Illinois-Springfield. He has played in all 28 games this season, averaging 26.1 minutes per contest. He’s averaging nearly eight points per game and leads the team in rebounding at 8.6 per game.  

Stell also leads the team with 35 blocked shots. 

The third-seeded Prairie Stars (17-11) will take on sixth-seeded McKendree in a quarterfinal matchup this Friday night.

A win would put the Prairie Stars in the semifinal this Saturday night, facing the winner of the matchup between Upper Iowa and William Jewell. 

The conference championship game is this Sunday afternoon, with the winner earning the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional. 

Stell finished his high school career as the all-time leading rebounder in WHS history with 1,223 rebounds and the second all-time leading scorer with 1,703 total points.