Indian Creek boys basketball doesn’t miss a step in season-opening win against Hinckley-Big Rock

SHABBONA – Their leading scorer was gone and the masks were on.

But for the most part the Indian Creek boys basketball team opened its season looking a lot like last year’s model in a 78-31 win against Hinckley-Big Rock.

“We have the luxury of having so many players back,” said Indian Creek coach Joe Piekarz of the four starters back from last year’s team. “They’ve been varsity players since freshman and sophomore years. They did a great job of picking up where we left off with the style we play.”

The Timberwolves imposed their pace on the Royals in a nonconference game between Little 10 rivals. They stole the ball 10 times in the win, including three by Davis Stryker.

Indian Creek was playing its first game in 11 months since losing the Class 1A DeKalb Supersectional to Aurora Christian. The state tournament ended up being wiped out because of COVID-19.

With the 6-foot-4 Cooper Larsen graduated from last year’s team, Cam Russell picked up some of the slack inside. The guard slashed to the bucket repeatedly, scoring 25 points before being lifted in the third quarter with the rest of the Indian Creek starters.

“All of us to be able to cut and move like that is big,” Russell said. “To be able to finish like that is huge, too.”

Piekarz said he thought that all of Russell’s points came from the paint. He did not attempt a 3-pointer in the game.

“When he feels like he’s got the matchup, he can get to the lane pretty quickly,” Piekarz said. “He can shoot it, too, so he takes what’s given to him, and that’s what was given to him tonight.”

The fourth quarter was played with a running clock and mostly backups for both teams.

After the game was tied 2-all 2:20 into the game, Michael Lampson hit back-to-back 3s to kick start a 21-3 run stretching into the second quarter.

“We knew putting them on the schedule, if there were any rankings or AP anything they’d be ranked probably in the top 5 in state for sure,” Royals coach Seth Sanderson said. “We wanted to start there. That’s where we [are] emulating to get to. We’ve got a big group of seniors coming up, so it’s tough with no summer ball or anything. It’s a tough welcome to varsity experience.”

Sanderson said the Royals were just happy with the small victories, which he said he felt were rebounding and ball movement.

“I though throughout the game Noah Badal and Judson Scott, throughout the second half, did a nice job crashing,” Sanderson said. “They grabbed some offensive rebounds and got some putbacks when we weren’t scoring anywhere else.”

By the numbers: Drew Gaston had 18 points for the Timberwolves and Lampson finished with 13, including three 3-pointers. Noah Badal, Ben Hintzsche and Jack Scott each scored six points for the Royals.

Beyond the stats: The Royals are the No. 3 seed for next week’s Little 10 tournament, while the Timberwolves are the No. 1 seed.

They said it: “This was about so much more than this game,” Piekarz said. “It was the opportunity to get back out here, and three weeks ago we thought we were done. They did great for coming out and playing good basketball.”

Up next: The Royals are at Amboy on Saturday, while the Timberwolves are at Genoa-Kingston on Friday.