ROCHELLE — The Hubs varsity basketball team found itself in another early hole Tuesday night when the Freeport Pretzels came to town for an IHSA Class 3A Regional Semifinal game at Rochelle Township High School.

But with a spot in the finals on the line, the purple and white wouldn’t let the opportunity slip through their fingers.

Despite trailing 21-9 after the first quarter, the Hubs fought back to take the lead late in the game, and Rochelle held off a late barrage of Freeport shots to top the Pretzels 61-58 and improve to 20-7 overall this season.

“We knew we had to dig deep,” said senior Matt Albers, who scored nine points in the victory including a big put-back layup through contact to give the Hubs a 50-43 lead in the fourth quarter. “We knew they were going to scout us a bunch and we needed to have a presence in the game off our bench. Fortunately we had a lot of guys step up tonight.”

Freeport (10-18 overall) began the regional semifinal contest on an 11-2 run to force a Rochelle timeout with 4:55 left in the first quarter. The Hubs only made four baskets the entire quarter, and while head coach Tim Thompson wasn’t entirely worried about the team’s sluggish start, he said he hopes the boys can make the right adjustments when they battle for the regional title Friday night.

“When you have so many offensive sets out there, everybody’s scouted everybody else plenty of times,” Thompson said. “I think Freeport did a great job of switching on everything and having a big, physical player to ride Kyle [Seebach] out… It made it tough. We’re just having trouble getting the other team’s guards off our guards so we can get clean looks.”

Rochelle cut Freeport’s lead to four points at halftime, with senior Caleb Gould and junior Angel Aguirre each scoring five points to help make it a 28-24 game. A 6-0 run in the third quarter off two 3-point shots by senior Landon Griffith and sophomore Johnny Beck brought the Hubs within two points, and after the third quarter the game was tied at 41-41.

“I think early in the game we were frustrated with our offense and we were giving up a little too much defensively,” Thompson said. “As we started to lock in and their big guy got in foul trouble, we were able to impose our will in the half court and we were able to get out of defensive possessions.”

Both teams found themselves in the bonus at the beginning of the fourth quarter, and even though Rochelle’s guards were having a difficult time making shots, the Hubs powered through thanks to a strong effort from the team’s forwards. Seebach ended the night with a team-high 12 points, while Beck added seven points and junior Komla Gati stonewalled Freeport’s guards on several drives to the bucket.

That group also includes Albers, who received high praise from his coach for his effort in Tuesday night’s game.

“I thought Matt was fantastic,” Thompson said. “This was totally the type of game that Matt Albers wants to play in. He’s just such a tough, physical kid and he was going in there soaring for offensive and defensive rebounds and helping us get the ball in transition.”

Rochelle led Freeport 59-50 as both teams entered the final minute of regulation, with Gould and Griffith knocking down a series of free throws to finish the game with 21 combined points. But a pair of Pretzel 3-pointers by junior Cade Budenz, who scored a team-high 16 points in the game, in between an RTHS turnover made it a 59-56 game with 8.1 seconds to go.

The Hubs inbounded the ball to senior Kaywan Palmer, who went to the free-throw line after a Freeport foul and calmly splashed home a pair of shots for two of his six points with 6.4 seconds left. The Pretzels hit their final shot as time expired, but it wouldn’t be enough to earn them the victory.

Rochelle will face either No. 4 seed Marian Central Catholic or No. 5 seed Belvidere for the regional championship Friday night at 7 p.m. The top-seeded Hubs haven’t won a regional since 2009, and for a team that has won more home games this season (9) than it has total games over the past two years (8), a victory in front of their fans on Friday would be another sparkle on what has been a magical season.

“We have to do it on the defensive end again,” Albers said. “I think we’ll get our shots down Friday, but our defensive will have to come up big again.”