With its season on the line and an IHSA 3A Regional Championship victory in the balance, the Rochelle Hub varsity basketball team erased a 20-point deficit and gave the Freeport Pretzels everything they could handle, coming within three points in the final minute.
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, below, or purchase a new subscription.
Please log in to continue |
ROCKFORD — With its season on the line and an IHSA 3A Regional Championship victory in the balance, the Rochelle Hub varsity basketball team erased a 20-point deficit and gave the Freeport Pretzels everything they could handle, coming within three points in the final minute.
The second-seeded Pretzels looked ready to blow the fifth-seeded Hubs off the floor midway through the third quarter, where Freeport forced a Rochelle timeout after taking its largest lead of the game. But the Hubs refused to back down, rallying behind an outstanding shooting display from junior guard Carson Lewis, who drained a game-high eight 3-pointers on Friday.
Rochelle made the Pretzels sweat in the final minutes, where the Hubs clawed to within single digits and trailed by as little as three points with under 10 seconds remaining. Despite a feverish comeback, Rochelle fell a few points short, as two free throws and a missed shot by the Hubs at the buzzer resulted in an 82-77 victory for the Pretzels and a season-ending loss for Rochelle.
“In the third quarter, it seemed like we weren’t making shots and we were taking contested shots that led to run outs and two-on-one situations,” head coach Tim Thompson said. “We would’ve just packed it in and given up if this were a week and a half ago, but we hung tough and Carson made a couple of big shots. We were able to get ourselves back into the game with some steals and some easy buckets. Our kids kept hanging in there and I thought they played great tonight.”
Fresh off an upset over the Woodstock Blue Streaks, who were seeded third, Rochelle (11-22, 3-7 Interstate 8) showed up ready to play on Friday evening, with Lewis drilling a trio of first-quarter triples to help the Hubs hold a 19-18 lead. Freeport’s Carson Hartog knocked down two 3-pointers in the second quarter for the Pretzels, who took advantage of missed free throws and offensive rebounds to take over control of the game and build a double-digit advantage.
Free-throw shooting was troublesome for the Hubs, who missed 12 total shots and went just 10-for-22 from the charity stripe in the game. The Pretzels, however, went 23-for-32 on free throws and 11-for-13 during the fourth quarter to close out their regional championship win.
“When we get to games like this, we have to find ways to win,” Thompson said. “That’s what we talked about before the game. Even if people on the Freeport side didn’t think we had a chance to win, there were 20 kids involved in our program who believed they could win and they got after it… It came down to a free-throw contest at the end and we lost that free-throw contest. If we made more of those free throws, we could’ve had a shot and we could’ve had the lead.”
Behind a balanced offensive attack and success off the dribble, Freeport took a 38-31 halftime lead over the Hubs, who fell further behind as their offense went cold during the third quarter. The Pretzels continued attacking the basket, drawing enough fouls to enter the double bonus and convert shots at the free-throw line. Freeport guards Kazion Morehead and Dedric Macon sparked the Pretzel offense, with Morehead scoring 22 points and Macon adding 15 points.
Freeport carried a 61-47 lead into the fourth quarter, where Lewis exploded for three more triples after being held in check over the second and third quarters. The junior guard led all players with 26 points and led Rochelle back into the game, while freshman forward Brody Bruns and senior guard Eli Luxton put home key layups in the paint over the final minutes.
Bruns and Luxton each had 10 points for the Hubs, while junior guard Elijah Harley added 12 points including a pair of layups in the fourth quarter. Junior guard Cayden Moore had 10 points and senior guard Jack Tracey finished with nine points to round out all scorers for Rochelle.
“It was important that we stood out there and watched Freeport take the trophy,” Thompson said. “I thought that burned our kids on the inside. We need two or three-sport athletes at Rochelle, but Freeport has mostly basketball players and we came really close to taking it from them tonight. If we can find more time to get work in on the basketball end, then we can take a huge leap... We need to get back to work and we’ll have tons of minutes to fill next year.”
