It’s hard to turn the ball over 27 times and win a game, let alone by double digits on the road.

But the DeKalb girls’ basketball team forced 19 turnovers of its own against Rochelle on Monday night, and Zora Watts had 10 rebounds and three blocks in the Barbs’ 46-31 win over the Hubs.

“Defense was really big, that’s what kept us steady at the beginning of the game,” Watts said. “It’s what kept us going, even when we ... hadn’t scored on offense as much as we wanted to each quarter. We would get it all back on defense.”

DeKalb (2-3), entering on a three-game losing streak, never trailed and built up a 16-5 lead in the first quarter after a layup by Alicia Johnson, who finished with seven points and six rebounds.

The Hubs (3-3) got as close as 17-12 to start the second quarter on a bucket by Audrina Rodriguez, her only points of the game, but never any closer. The DeKalb lead never shrank below 11 in the second half.

“I think defense is a really valuable part of my game,” said Watts, who finished with 10 rebounds, two points and three blocks. “I think that sometimes I can be, like, not offensively there. I know I want to be there for my team at all times, and I know I can do that on defense at all times.”

Rochelle only scored 12 second-half points and seven in the fourth quarter. The Hubs cut the lead to 42-28 on a steal and layup by Natalie Foster, who finished with six points, five steals and two rebounds.

After another DeKalb turnover, the Hubs were poised to shrink the lead further with around five minutes left, but Watts came away with another block.

“She’s a great athlete, great kid, senior captain,” DeKalb coach Bradley Bjelk said. “She’s kind of our clean-up person. Loose balls, rebounds, she gets them. That’s where her game excels.”

Me’She Eubanks had eight points, two rebounds and three steals off the bench for the Barbs, who finished with a 33-24 edge on the boards.

Bjelk said the Barbs did a good job holding the Hubs to one shot, or even no shots, on each possession. He said that’s important until the offense finds its footing, especially with the trusted ball-handlers getting back into the swing of things.

“They need to put themselves in a good position and not put their teammates in a bad position by the ball leaving their hands,” Bjelk said. “They just have to be strong and confident with the ball, and we’re working on that. It’s moving slowly but we’re turning in the right direction.”

Gianna Olguin led the Hubs with 15 points, while Jayden Dickey added eight points, five rebounds and two steals. Carmela Bright, playing her first game since surgery to repair cartilage in her knee in October, had two points and five rebounds.

Rochelle coach John Ghem said his team showed much improvement defensively since last week at the Oregon tournament and likes the direction they’re heading in. Interstate 8 play starts Friday against Sycamore.

“I thought we had a poor showing defensively last Tuesday [in a 59-53 win] against Ottawa Marquette,” Ghem said. “I thought we responded very well against a physical DeKalb team and forced them to turn the ball over quite a bit.”

Monday was also the continuation of the streaky nature of the Rochelle offense, Ghem said. They put 50 or more against Genoa-Kingston and Marquette, but were held to 31 or less against Newman, St. Edward and DeKalb.

He said Bright’s return should help toward that. And even though it was more famine than feast, he said the effort has him optimistic ahead of the start of conference play - although the team still has a contest at Rock Falls on Thursday.

“If we can play that way, we’re going to be in a lot of games,” Ghem said. “We still have to figure some things out ... but it’s all things we can fix.”