ROCHELLE — Riley Lodico hasn’t put up many shots for the Hubs varsity basketball team this season, but the junior guard was far more assertive as a starter in Rochelle’s junior varsity game against the DeKalb Barbs on Monday.
Lodico scored a team-high 14 points for the Hubs, who played the Barbs tight for nearly the entire game but were unable to rally back in a 48-40 loss.
“I thought he played well tonight,” head coach Tim Thompson said. “He just hasn’t gotten enough shots on the varsity level right now, so it’s nice to see him play in a situation where he knows he’s going to be one of our better scorers. He was taking good, solid shots.”

The Hubs trailed 19-17 at halftime, with Lodico scoring eight of Rochelle’s points and sophomore Johnny Beck adding six points. RTHS cut the DeKalb lead to one after three quarters, with the Barbs leading 28-27.
While DeKalb outscored Rochelle 20-13 over the final quarter of the game, the Hubs received a big boost offensively from junior Noah Griffith, who scored seven points in the second half on a 3-pointer and two layups. Junior Garrett Glosser splashed home a 3-pointer as well for three of his five points in the game, while senior Sam Christensen chipped in five points.
“I like Noah a lot,” Thompson said. “I’ve liked him all year but it’s just one of those situations where we’re so guard-heavy that there aren’t a whole lot of minutes to go around. But he’s been excellent as a teammate and he’s continued to work hard in practice. I see him playing a lot of minutes next year.”
Junior Angel Aguirre scored three points to round out the RTHS squad on Monday. The Hubs played two sophomores in the game including Beck and Noah Knight, who filled in for senior Hunter Haggestad. Knight didn’t score against the Barbs, but he did find Christensen for a sweet no-look pass toward the end of the fourth quarter that caught the attention of both his teammates and his coach.
“It was a really nice pass and I was shocked he was able to do that.” Thompson said. “I don’t see a lot of the sophomores in practice because we don’t practice together all that much, and even in the sophomore games he’s very conservative with what he does and that’s what we want out of our guard spot. Now I know that he can see the floor well and that’s only going to help him in the future.”