Boys Basketball: Hubs finish winless at Freeport MLK Tournament

Rochelle drops games against Byron, Freeport

Russell Hodges
Posted 1/20/19

It’s unusual for basketball teams to play back-to-back games in a matter of hours, but after poor weather conditions over the weekend and some schedule reshuffling, the Rochelle varsity boys basketball team faced both Byron and Freeport during the Martin Luther King Jr. Tournament at Freeport High School on Monday.

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Boys Basketball: Hubs finish winless at Freeport MLK Tournament

Rochelle drops games against Byron, Freeport

Posted

FREEPORT — It’s unusual for basketball teams to play back-to-back games in a matter of hours, but after poor weather conditions over the weekend and some schedule reshuffling, the Rochelle varsity boys basketball team faced both Byron and Freeport during the Martin Luther King Jr. Tournament at Freeport High School on Monday.

With junior guard Seth Gould sidelined due to a knee injury, Rochelle struggled to contain Byron’s leading scorer Anthony Eddy, who scored a game-high 32 points and led the Tigers over the Hubs 67-35 and drop Rochelle to 9-11 overall.

In their second game, the Hubs rallied behind 34 points from senior forward Johnny Beck, but Rochelle was unable to stop the Freeport offense, as the Pretzels won 80-67 and moved the Hubs down to 9-12 overall. Beck was named to the All-Tournament Team.

Byron

“We didn’t play particularly well and they were able to build a big lead,” head coach Tim Thompson said. “We were close at halftime but they blew the game open in the third quarter. We missed about every shot we took and they made about every shot. Byron has a really solid team and they’re really rolling right now.”

Byron led Rochelle 13-5 after the first quarter before the Hubs fought back with a 13-7 run of their one in the second quarter. The Tigers overpowered Rochelle in the third quarter, however, outscoring the Hubs 32-14 and taking a commanding 52-32 lead. Turnovers hurt Rochelle in the game, as the Hubs committed 18 to only seven from Byron.

“They were working hard to prevent Johnny from getting easy touches,” Thompson said. “They were giving our guards some trouble handling the ball, but the biggest thing was that they were making shots. They run good offense, and I thought we defended them well in the second quarter, but it became more of a 1-on-1 game after that and Anthony [Eddy] went off for about six or seven shots in a row… It was sort of like a snowball running downhill.”

Byron put Rochelle away with a 15-3 run in the fourth quarter. Beck and sophomore Garrett Burdin each finished with eight points, while senior Kaleb Ackland added six points and a team-high 11 rebounds. Senior Noah Knight scored five points, with junior Landan Martin chipping in three points.

“It’s hard for somebody to take the place of someone like Seth Gould because he plays such solid defense, he gets rebounds and he had been averaging around 14 points and six rebounds a game for us recently,” Thompson said. “He’s a glue guy and he’s a dirty-work guy. He does things that not many kids like to do, and to beat teams like Byron, you need players like that.”

Freeport

“Freeport and Byron were two totally different teams,” Thompson said. “Byron ran a lot more set offense, whereas Freeport was just attacking us downhill. They were getting to the rim at will and they shot the ball really well in the first quarter… We made a big run at the end of the third quarter but we just ran out of gas after playing two games in a 4-hour window.”

The Pretzels led 35-25 at halftime behind Deron Lacey and Deontae Collier, who combined for 48 points in the game. More energy from Beck led to more scoring from the Hubs, as the big forward shot 11-of-23 from the field and 10-of-11 from the free-throw line against Freeport while adding five rebounds, two blocks and two steals.

“Johnny definitely shot the ball a lot better,” Thompson said. “Freeport lost him a few times and he was catching the ball on the trail and making shots there. He really has been our most consistent scorer recently outside of Seth, but with Seth going down, we’re going to need more from our other guards.”

Burdin scored 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting for the Hubs, with Ackland adding 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting while totaling seven rebounds and four assists. Junior Austin Brown recorded six points and four assists, while Martin added four points, five rebounds and three assists. Rochelle will host Morris next on Saturday, Jan. 26 at 6 p.m.