Angel Aguirre knew he had to be more aggressive on offense when the Hubs varsity basketball team hosted LaSalle-Peru on Friday to try and remain perfect in the Northern Illinois Big 12 West.
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ROCHELLE — Angel Aguirre knew he had to be more aggressive on offense when the Hubs varsity basketball team hosted LaSalle-Peru on Friday to try and remain perfect in the Northern Illinois Big 12 West.
It was a tough shooting night for the Rochelle boys, but Aguirre came through when his teammates needed him the most. The senior guard scored a season-high 28 points on Friday, and his offensive outburst helped Rochelle take down the Cavaliers 54-45 and improve to 11-5 on the season. The Hubs also bumped their conference record up to 3-0.
“I haven’t really gone out and been aggressive over our past few games, but tonight I was hot from the beginning and that was good for our team,” Aguirre said. “It’s very important for us to be confident in our conference games because that means we’ll be confident when we play bigger schools.”
Rochelle held the lead for the entire first half, but the Hubs weren’t able to create much distance between themselves and the Cavaliers, who trailed 11-10 after the first quarter and entered the locker room at halftime down 21-19. LaSalle-Peru managed to shut down Rochelle’s leading scorer, junior forward Johnny Beck, who finished the game with just five points.
But while the Cavaliers were tough in the paint, the Hubs showed quick hands and feet on the perimeter, forcing turnovers and generating steals including three key takeaways by senior Riley Lodico at the end of the fourth quarter to seal Rochelle’s victory. Tyler Martyn’s team-high 17 points anchored the LaSalle-Peru offense on Friday.
“They were playing Johnny really hard,” Aguirre said. “We couldn’t get the ball to Johnny as much as we wanted. We’ve been going a lot harder on defense in practice than we usually do and we’ve been locked in. We’re memorizing our plays and we’re playing with each other much better than we were at the beginning of the season.”
Rochelle has won five consecutive games, and the Hubs are 8-1 over their last nine games dating back to their victory over Wauconda at the E.C. Nichols Holiday Classic in Marengo. Only one opponent has topped 60 points over that nine-game span. Rochelle will host Sycamore on Friday, Jan. 19.
