Sycamore stifles Hubs basketball team

Rochelle has five-game win streak snapped in 47-33 loss

Russell Hodges
Posted 1/18/18

Despite leading Sycamore for just over three quarters of Friday night’s conference crossover basketball game, the Hubs varsity basketball team was unable to overcome its coldest shooting performance of the season against the Spartans.

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Sycamore stifles Hubs basketball team

Rochelle has five-game win streak snapped in 47-33 loss

Posted

ROCHELLE — Despite leading Sycamore for just over three quarters of Friday night’s conference crossover basketball game, the Hubs varsity basketball team was unable to overcome its coldest shooting performance of the season against the Spartans.

Sycamore held Rochelle to just five points in the fourth quarter, and the Spartans rallied behind their defense to take down the Hubs by a final score of 47-33. The loss snaps Rochelle’s five-game winning streak and drops the team’s overall record to 11-6. Senior Angel Aguirre led the Hubs with eight points.

“They outplayed us the entire night,” head coach Tim Thompson said. “They were moving their feet and they made everything that we did difficult. They were physical with Johnny [Beck] and they were physical with our guards… Our kids took them for granted and they thought they could walk in and win against a team that had four wins. Now they have five wins.”

Senior Komla Gati gave the Hubs a spark in the first quarter, scoring five of his six points and emphatically blocking two Sycamore shots to ignite the Rochelle fans. Both teams struggled to get off the ground, and after one quarter, the Hubs and Spartans were tied 5-5. Rochelle slightly outscored Sycamore 15-12 in the second quarter to lead 20-17 at halftime.

“They challenged everything we did,” Thompson said. “We were taking weak dribbles that weren’t going anywhere, and we need to get back to having more continuity on offense and work really hard on getting ball reversals. Right now we’re not going to sneak up on anybody… We just need to outplay the other team.”

Behind Ethan Heinrich and Payton Picolotti, the Spartans marched their way back into Friday night’s game. Sycamore cut Rochelle’s lead to one point after three quarters (28-27) before outscoring the Hubs 20-5 in the fourth quarter. Heinrich scored a game-high 12 points while Picolotti had 10 points.

Rebounding hurt the Hubs on Friday in addition to cold shooting, but the Rochelle boys will look to bounce back when they face Ottawa on the road Friday, Jan. 26.

“When teams want to play physical with us, we don’t fight them back,” Thompson said. “We have one guy sealing out and three guys watching. All five guys have to collectively seal out and then go get the ball… We used to pride ourselves on offensive rebounds but we’re accepting being sealed out as opposed to finding open areas.”