Boys Basketball: Rochelle nets Senior Night win over Sandwich

Hubs defeat Indians 59-51; Rochelle tops Princeton, Morris on road

Russell Hodges
Posted 2/20/20

The Hubs struggled against Sandwich’s aggressive man-to-man defense during the fourth quarter of Rochelle’s Senior Night basketball game against the Indians on Friday. However, a strong start and a barrage of 3-pointers allowed the purple and white to send their five seniors off with a home victory.

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Boys Basketball: Rochelle nets Senior Night win over Sandwich

Hubs defeat Indians 59-51; Rochelle tops Princeton, Morris on road

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ROCHELLE — The Hubs struggled against Sandwich’s aggressive man-to-man defense during the fourth quarter of Rochelle’s Senior Night basketball game against the Indians on Friday. However, a strong start and a barrage of 3-pointers allowed the purple and white to send their five seniors off with a home victory.

Despite making only two field goals in the fourth quarter, Rochelle outlasted Sandwich 59-51 to sweep the Interstate 8 Conference home-and-home series. The Hubs sunk 13 triples in the game, with four coming from junior Garrett Burdin, who scored 16 points for Rochelle. Senior Landan Martin led the Hubs (17-11, 7-5 Interstate 8) with 17 points, while senior Seth Gould added 11 points including two first-quarter 3-pointers.

“I love this senior class so much and I think all of them have done a great job of helping improve our basketball program,” head coach Tim Thompson said. “They did a lot to help us out this season, and it’s always bittersweet, but we have one more home game to play. Senior Night is always an emotional game for us.”

Back-to-back triples from Gould allowed Rochelle to break the game open with an 11-2 run early in the first quarter. From one senior to another, Martin scored the final seven first-quarter points for the Hubs, sinking a step-back 3-pointer at the buzzer to put Rochelle up 18-5. The Hubs added three more triples in the second quarter, with two layups from Gould helping Rochelle build a 31-20 lead over the Indians at halftime.

“I thought we had really nice ball movement at times,” Thompson said. “We made a lot of 3-point shots but I thought we could have made a lot more because we had a lot of open looks. At times, I thought we got a bit flat offensively when we tried to gap too much and we could’ve had better ball reversals. It was nice to get off to a quick start.”

Six Rochelle players scored points in the third quarter, where the Hubs utilized corner triples from senior Ben Hickey and junior Spencer Warborg to keep pace with Sandwich and remain ahead 49-36 entering the fourth quarter. The Indians ramped up their man-to-man defense late in the game, sealing cutting lanes and forcing errant passes by the Hubs. Sandwich opened the quarter on a 6-1 run to bring Rochelle within single digits.

“Sandwich has guarded hard the entire year,” Thompson said. “They play solid man-to-man defense and they don’t give teams much off the dribble. I thought our guys looked flat at times. Things that have been uncharacteristic of us over the last few weeks, like getting caught crossing over in front, kicking the ball around and getting loose with the ball in our hands… I don’t think the kids were fully ready for their physicality.”

Sandwich trailed 55-49 before Burdin iced the Senior Night win with four straight free-throw conversions in the final minute of regulation. Rochelle will host Ottawa on Wednesday at 7 p.m. before closing the regular season at LaSalle-Peru on the road Friday at 7 p.m.

Morris

Tuesday was a tough shooting night for the Rochelle boys basketball team, but the Hubs still found a way to take down the Morris Redskins on the road and pick up another Interstate 8 Conference victory.

Despite shooting only 32 percent from the field, Rochelle took advantage of a game-high 28 turnovers from the Redskins to beat Morris 59-45 and improve to 16-11 overall and 6-5 in conference action. The Hubs forced 10 turnovers in the first quarter and rallied behind guards Landan Martin and Garrett Burdin, who scored 25 points and 18 points, respectively.

“All of their first-quarter turnovers were dead-ball turnovers, which allowed them to set their defense,” head coach Tim Thompson said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well and they played their game plan perfectly. They played a zone against us and slowed us down. I thought that forcing 28 turnovers would get us the win, but it wasn’t as easy as those numbers would dictate.”

The Hubs build a 25-19 lead at halftime before limiting Morris to only two points in the third quarter. Both teams picked the action up in the fourth quarter, combining for 47 points with the Redskins scoring 24 and the Hubs keeping pace with 23. Rochelle only made five 3-pointers in the game, but the team’s 17 offensive rebounds created enough second-chance opportunities to maintain a lead throughout the evening.

“Morris isn’t an easy place to play and we really had to grind the win out,” Thompson said. “The kids kept battling and they seemed to win every quarter by a few points. We were able to make enough shots down low to get through the game. I thought it was really important for the kids to win the game when they didn’t have their best.”

Burdin and Martin teamed up for 11 rebounds in the game, while senior Austin Brown led the Hubs with five assists and Martin recorded four steals. Rochelle has won 12 of its last 14 games, and the Hubs will host Sandwich for Senior Night on Friday at 7 p.m.

“I think the kids have a tremendous amount of confidence,” Thompson said. “They go into every game expecting to win and they expect to put on a good performance. We haven’t been turning the ball over and we’re getting the shots we want.”

Princeton

The Rochelle boys basketball team rained down 3-pointers on Princeton when the Hubs faced the Tigers in nonconference play on the road Saturday evening.

Senior Landan Martin scored a team-high 26 points while sinking five triples, while junior Garrett Burdin drilled four triples and added 21 points as the Hubs cruised over Princeton 75-52 and improved to 15-11 overall. Senior Seth Gould recorded 13 points and six rebounds for the Hubs, who dominated the first quarter 18-2 and led 41-19 at halftime.

“Landan and Garrett had a ton of confidence,” head coach Tim Thompson said. “Landan starting our scoring off and when they started focusing on Landan, Garrett was open and knocking down shots. We were 12-for-24 from 3-point range, and when we make 50 percent of our 3-pointers, we’re usually going to reap the benefits of those shots.”

Wyatt Davis (11 points) was the only Princeton player to reach double figures on Saturday, when the Hubs built a 72-37 lead after three quarters before hitting cruise control for the remainder of the game. Rochelle has won its last three games against the Tigers, who have not beaten the Hubs since 2016. Rochelle will host Sandwich on Friday at 7 p.m. for Senior Night.

“I was a little concerned because we’ve played a lot of home games recently,” Thompson said. “I didn’t know how the kids would come out, but they had a spark early in the game. They were turning Princeton over, they made shots and it never felt like Princeton could get into the game. We were really aggressive in our press and we got out hands on a lot of balls. We were shooting the ball on offense before they could get back to guard us. We played really quick.”