Hubs basketball team nets win at Morris

Rochelle boys snap four-game losing streak with 60-39 victory

Russell Hodges
Posted 2/6/18

Last season’s varsity basketball contest between Rochelle and Morris went down to the final seconds, with Johnny Beck draining a 3-point shot to help the Hubs defeat the Redskins by three points. This time around, the purple and white gained control from the tip, and the boys cruised to an easy victory over Morris by a final score of 60-39.

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Hubs basketball team nets win at Morris

Rochelle boys snap four-game losing streak with 60-39 victory

Posted

MORRIS — Last season’s varsity basketball contest between Rochelle and Morris went down to the final seconds, with Johnny Beck draining a 3-point shot to help the Hubs defeat the Redskins by three points. This time around, the purple and white gained control from the tip, and the boys cruised to an easy victory over Morris by a final score of 60-39.

The win snaps Rochelle’s four-game losing streak and improves the team’s record to 12-9 overall. Senior Angel Aguirre ignited the Hubs early in the first quarter, scoring 11 of his 13 points to help Rochelle lead Morris 21-9 at the end of the quarter. Neither team found the basket much in the second quarter, but the Hubs led 28-14 at halftime.

“It was really important for our kids to get a win,” head coach Tim Thompson said. “They’ve had some good efforts, specifically on defense, but they haven’t shot the ball well enough to get those wins. We came out and shot the ball well in the first quarter… Our defense was fantastic last night.”

Defense has become Rochelle’s identity this season, and the Hubs continued putting pressure on Morris during the second half, outscoring the Redskins 21-12 in the third quarter to increase their lead to 23 points. Senior Noah Griffith scored five of his 12 points in the third quarter for Rochelle, and Beck added six of his team-high 15 points.

“We really went after them with our press because Morris has been struggling to handle the ball and pass the ball around,” Thompson said. “We did a lot of running and jumping and we seemed to confuse them. They were having a really difficult time getting shots, and Johnny [Beck] negated [Tyler] Spiezio with his height.”

Spiezio was limited to only four points in the game. Just three opponents have scored over 60 points against Rochelle in the team’s last 14 games, and as the Hubs prepare for their rematch against Geneseo on Friday, Thompson said the boys are beginning to take hold of their defensive abilities this year.

“We’re guaranteed to have effort and play defense every night,” Thompson said. “The kids have been great with hedging and making all the ball-screen action that teams try to do against us very difficult. It’s prevented us from having to switch, which is where we’re put in mismatches. We’ve been able to keep bigs on bigs and guards on guards.”