MARENGO — The Rochelle Hub varsity basketball team arrived for the opening round of the E.C. Nichols Holiday Classic on Monday with a renewed sense of confidence after scoring wins over Genoa-Kingston and Morris this past week. Rochelle showed no signs of backing down this week, with six players reaching double figures in a first-round rout against Harvest Christian.

Behind a dominant start to the third quarter in which the Hubs broke off an 18-1 run, Rochelle pushed the ball up and down the floor all evening, wearing out the Harvest Christian defense to the tune of an 85-57 victory. The Hubs (5-5, 2-1 Interstate 8) saw 10 players score at least two points in the win.

“We’re on a three-game winning streak and I thought we pushed the ball really well today,” senior Adam Kemp said. “Our confidence is definitely through the roof right now, but we have a tough game coming up in the next round. Our energy has been much better over the last week or so and we’re having a lot more fun. When we’re pushing the pace, we play really well. I thought we were able to move the ball around and create a lot of open shots today.”

Kemp drilled a 3-pointer and finished through contact for an old-fashioned 3-point play to score all six of his points in the first quarter and help spark the Rochelle offense. Harvest Christian fell behind early, but the Lions received a significant scoring boost from guard Ben Lothrey, who converted several contested shots and led all players with 25 points in the game.

However, the Lions had no answers for Rochelle’s ball movement, which included long passes down the floor, cross-court passes and quick passes inside to junior forwards Raul Aguirre and Aidan Darby, who each finished with 11 points. Senior Noah Brown canned two second-quarter triples for the Hubs, who led 24-19 after the first quarter and 48-35 at halftime. Brown and senior Ryan Simmons, who also swished a second-quarter triple, each scored 12 points.

While Rochelle’s offense made plenty of noise in the first half, the team’s full-court press and ball pressure on defense stifled the Harvest Christian offense, generating several steals and transition baskets including a pair of one-handed dunks from Simmons. The Hubs led by as many as 33 points and were on pace to score nearly 100 points after three quarters.

“We’ve been focused on using our length and our size on defense,” Kemp said. “We’re really long and we can get a lot of deflections and steals so we can get out and run. Our confidence is really high right now and we’re going to use that to try and make a run in this tournament.”

Senior Tanner Lager finished with 11 points in the win, while sophomore Eli Luxton totaled 10 points. Senior Forrest Gerber scored five fourth-quarter points to help seal the victory.