There wasn’t much offense to go around during Rochelle’s varsity boys basketball game against the Dixon Dukes on Tuesday, but fortunately for the purple and white, they were able to walk away from Dixon High School with a close victory in nonconference action.
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DIXON — There wasn’t much offense to go around during Rochelle’s varsity boys basketball game against the Dixon Dukes on Tuesday, but fortunately for the purple and white, they were able to walk away from Dixon High School with a close victory in nonconference action.
Seven different Hubs scored points on Tuesday, and while none of the boys managed to crack double figures, they controlled the game with their defense, holding Dixon to 14 points in the first half and hanging on late in the fourth quarter to win by a final score of 45-42. The win bumps Rochelle’s overall record up to 4-4, and the purple and white will face Geneseo on the road Friday evening.
“I think there were two teams that did what they wanted to do defensively,” head coach Tim Thompson said. “They were playing a pack-line defense because they didn’t want Blake [Albers] or Johnny [Beck] to get any shots off since they weren’t as big as we were. We were trying to take out one player and play more up-tempo defense and neither team shot the ball that well.”
Seniors Noah Mershon, Noah Griffith and Riley Lodico each made 3-point shots in the first quarter, and the Hubs held a 13-7 lead over Dixon at the end of the quarter. Griffith hit another 3-pointer in the second quarter, and Albers scored three of his team-high nine points to help Rochelle take a 22-14 lead at halftime.
“The boys just kept grinding,” Thompson said. “We were always up by 6 or 7 points until Dixon made a run… We made some turnovers but Komla [Gati] made a big layup late in the game to keep us up and Angel [Aguirre] hit two big free throws to keep us up by three points and we were able to hold on.”
Beau Bailey sparked Dixon’s rally in the third quarter, scoring four of his game-high 16 points on free-throw attempts and adding 10 points in the fourth quarter. Rochelle led 31-27 after three quarters behind seven points from Albers and six points from Griffith. Gati scored four of his six points in the fourth quarter to help Rochelle maintain its lead.
“Komla was huge for us,” Thompson said. “He played Beau tough the entire night and he was great defensively… Angel’s free throws were big for us and I thought Blake played a nice floor game and made a couple of big buckets for us in the second half when we needed them.”
