URBANA — Uni High faced its first test of the basketball season Friday night — and passed.

Bement played the Illineks close, but Uni prevailed 73-59 at Kenney Gym to advance to the championship game of the eight-team Central Illinois Turkey Tournament.

Uni is now 3-0 on the season and will host Martinsville at 6:30 tonight for the CITT title.

“I thought they played very well,” Uni head coach Joel Beesley said of his team. “They came out of the gate, they just ran with the basketball. … Then they struggled for a little while there. We gave them the ball — they [Bement] came back and made a very good game. Our guys fought back and showed they could withstand problems, and it was a great test.”

Senior Chumar Williams led Uni with 21 points and 8 assists. Fellow senior Austin Rundus added 15 points and a team-high 8 rebounds.

Uni came out strong, taking a commanding 27-5 lead into the second quarter. But Bement would creep back into the contest with a 14-0 run. By halftime, Uni’s lead had dwindled to 35-28.

The two teams played evenly in the third quarter, with the Illineks leading 52-45 going into the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs wouldn’t get any closer as Uni pulled away for the 14-point victory.

Senior Mike Renner had 13 points, including two treys. Renner now has 120 career 3-pointers and is two away from tying 2005 alum Henry Pollock for first in Uni history.

Renner’s 13 points also put him 5 behind 1963 alum Doug Brown (1,113) for second on Uni’s all-time scoring list. Mike’s brother Al, a 2006 grad, is first with 1,372.

Besides landing Uni in tonight's CITT title game, Friday's win also served as payback for Bement's 54-46 overtime victory in last year’s Turkey Tourney.

Uni's opponent in tonight's championship match, Martinsville, advanced to the final by beating Atwood-Hammond on Friday 57-40.

The varsity level of the CITT consists of eight teams divided into two pools: A (Uni, Bement, Shiloh, Buckley Christ Lutheran) and B (Atwood-Hammond, Martinsville, Decatur Lutheran, DeLand-Weldon).

Uni is the champion of Pool A, which played its games at Kenney Gym this week. Martinsville won Pool B, which played its games at Atwood-Hammond.

The fourth-place teams in both pools will play each other 1:30 p.m. today at Kenney, followed by a consolation game at 3:15 involving the third-place squads.

The second-place teams will play for third overall at 5 p.m., with the title game capping things off at 6:30.