PLANO — The Hubs varsity basketball team has given its opponents fits on defense throughout the season, and the Rochelle boys turned their defense into offense when they traveled to Plano on Tuesday for a nonconference matchup with the Reapers.

Rochelle maintained a slight lead over Plano at halftime, but the Hubs weren’t happy with how they took the floor over the first two quarter. The purple and white played with much more ferocity on defense in the second half, and Rochelle went on to beat Plano by a final score of 70-47 to improve to 14-9 on the season.

“It all starts with our defense,” said senior Riley Lodico, who totaled 10 points, three rebounds and two steals on Tuesday. “Our defense is giving us more opportunities on offense, and we were playing together on offense… We outworked them in the third quarter and we were slow to come out in the first half. We really turned it up and got to where we wanted to be.”

The Hubs hadn’t reached the 70-point mark since beating Kaneland 86-73 on the road Jan. 5. Points have been tough to come by for Rochelle recently, as the Hubs are averaging 55.1 points over their last nine games, but balance proved to be the key to Rochelle’s offensive success against the Reapers.

Three players reached double-figures including junior Johnny Beck (12 points), Lodico (10 points) and senior Angel Aguirre (10 points). When the final buzzer sounded, 10 Rochelle players had entered the scoring column. The Hubs led Plano 33-30 at halftime after the Reapers and Rochelle remained tied 16-16 after the first quarter.

“We had good ball movement and we were pushing the tempo as we always do,” said senior Noah Griffith, who recorded eight points, three rebounds and two steals in the win. “Our defense has been really good, and good defense creates offense. They were getting tired and we kept trying to push the ball to the hole. We were able to get good shots when we collapsed their defense.”

The Reapers managed to hang around in the first half, but the Hubs took control of Tuesday’s game in the third quarter, outscoring Plano 17-9 to go up 50-39 entering the fourth quarter.  Senior Blake Albers said he didn’t feel like the Hubs played their best defense in the first half, but Albers and his teammates shook off the rust and attacked Plano in the second half.

“We wanted to come out and show that we could still execute our defensive game plan,” said Albers, who scored eight points and grabbed 11 rebounds on Tuesday. “We came out firing the ball and we made every pass difficult for them. We jumped their passing lanes and we were just trying to make their lives miserable.

Senior Komla Gati went 3-for-3 from the field on Tuesday, scoring seven points and leading Rochelle with three steals. Junior Noah Knight added six points in five minutes, while senior Noah Mershon chipped in four points and five deflections. Juniors Kaleb Ackland and Mason DeLille combined for five points, with Ackland scoring three and DeLille adding two.