DeKalb downs Hubs basketball team

Beck scores 24, Aguirre adds 19 in 67-60 loss

Russell Hodges
Posted 12/10/17

The Hubs varsity basketball team mounted a furious comeback to enter the locker room at halftime tied with the DeKalb Barbs this past Saturday, but the purple and white were unable to keep their momentum swing going in the second half, falling by a final score of 67-60 and dropping to 3-4 overall on the season.

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DeKalb downs Hubs basketball team

Beck scores 24, Aguirre adds 19 in 67-60 loss

Posted

ROCHELLE — The Hubs varsity basketball team mounted a furious comeback to enter the locker room at halftime tied with the DeKalb Barbs this past Saturday, but the purple and white were unable to keep their momentum swing going in the second half, falling by a final score of 67-60 and dropping to 3-4 overall on the season.

“We got down early and we made a huge comeback to tie the game at halftime,” head coach Tim Thompson said. “The second half was tight for most of the way, but we turned the ball over a few times late in the third quarter and we just made too many turnovers down the stretch to really get by them and win the game.”

DeKalb outscored Rochelle 20-7 in the first quarter behind 11 points from Marcus Bobo, who finished with a team-high 18 points for the Barbs. Bobo made five 2-point shots in the first quarter, while the Hubs combined converted on just three 2-pointers.

“He’s just a really nice player,” Thompson said. “He scored some layups on us from backdoor passes and his offensive rebounding really determined his offense. He really wasn’t out there shooting over us, but it was his physicality that gave us some problems.”

The Hubs began rallying back in the second quarter, with junior Johnny Beck scoring 12 of his game-high 24 points and senior Noah Mershon adding five points. Rochelle held Bobo scoreless in the quarter, and the purple and white outpaced DeKalb 23-10 to tie the game 30-30 at halftime. Beck finished a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line in the quarter.

Senior Angel Aguirre made two 3-point shots to lift the Hubs in the third quarter, and Beck put home a pair of 2-pointers to keep Rochelle within striking distance of the Barbs, who jumped ahead 45-42 at the end of the quarter. But despite two more 3-pointers in the fourth quarter from Aguirre, who scored 19 points in the game, DeKalb put the game away at the free-throw line, making 19-of-23 shots from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter. Rochelle will face Dixon on the road Tuesday evening.

“Angel was penetrating the defense and he was making 3-pointers when he was open,” Thompson said. “He was finishing at the rim and he made a few free throws… Johnny’s been really consistent scoring around 18 or 19 points per game and we need to get Angel up to around 15 or 20 points per game… If we can get one more player to score around 10 or 12 points per game, then I’ll feel like our offense is in a spot where we can really compete with a lot of teams.”