Some tough love during halftime helped the Rochelle varsity boys basketball team fight back after falling behind the Princeton Tigers at home Friday evening.
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ROCHELLE — Some tough love during halftime helped the Rochelle varsity boys basketball team fight back after falling behind the Princeton Tigers at home Friday evening.
The Hubs trailed Princeton 36-27 after two quarters, with turnovers and missed shots creating transition scoring opportunities for the Tigers. Instead of heading into the locker room, Rochelle head coach Tim Thompson took his team into the school’s blue gymnasium and delivered a stern message to his players.
Rochelle responded with fever over the next two quarters, blowing Princeton away 48-28 in the second half and rallying to win 75-64 and improve to 11-16 overall. The Hubs snapped their four-game losing streak with the victory.
“Coach Thompson was on us,” junior Landan Martin said. “We weren’t playing how we were supposed to play and we were flat. He got on us. We moved the ball well in the second half and we played great defense.”
Martin and senior Johnny Beck generated the offensive spark for Rochelle, scoring 33 of their team’s points in the second half. The two players combined to score 50 points overall, with Beck totaling a game-high 27 points and Martin recording a season-best 23 points while making five 3-pointers.
“It felt great to shoot the ball well and put on a show for the home crowd,” Martin said. “We need to keep our energy up, we need to keep moving the ball around and we need to keep playing as a team.”
The Hubs erased their nine-point deficit by the end of the third quarter, with the game tied 48-48. Led by junior guard Austin Brown, the Rochelle defense clamped down on Princeton’s top scorers Beck Robbins and Koel Hjertsedt, who were each held under 15 points on Friday.
“Coach Thompson pulled us into the blue gym and chewed our butts off,” Brown said. “He told us to go out there and work as hard as we can, and we knew that we could come back and pull off the win. Defense all comes from the heart, and it’s all about pure effort. I felt that we wanted the win more than they did.”
Sophomore Garrett Burdin scored nine points on three 3-pointers for the Hubs, while senior Kaleb Ackland added nine points including five in the fourth quarter. Rochelle has three games remaining (Geneseo, Yorkville and Kaneland) before tipping off the IHSA Class 3A Regional at Freeport on Monday, Feb. 25.
“We shot the ball really well, and I think staying up on that will help a lot,” Brown said. “We moved the ball around well today and that led to a lot of open shots.”
