Coming into Friday’s game against Herscher without senior standout center Joe Hoekstra due to illness, Streator coach Beau Doty told Brennen Stillwell not to get in foul trouble.

He’d be needed for every minute.

Playing all 32 minutes, Stillwell scored 22 of the Bulldogs’ 30 second-half points for a 55-49 Illinois Central Eight Conference victory. The Bulldogs held off a second-half charge from the Tigers and put an end to a seven-game losing streak.

“I told him, he usually plays 28 to 30 minutes a game, and once we knew Joe wasn’t going to be able to go, ‘be ready to go all 32,’” Doty said. “That’s what a captain does.”

The 6-foot, 3-inch junior finished with a game-high 26 points, 10 of them from the free throw line.

“Without our center Joe, it’s tough to find ways to win,” Stillwell said. “We had the next-guy-up mentality. We realized we’ve got to get rebounds. He gets 10-plus rebounds a game, so we had to box out, D up.”

The Bulldogs (7-9, 6-1) jumped out to an early 19-5 lead, but Herscher coach Drew Boudreau was not surprised the Tigers fought back. The Tigers (6-11, 2-5) drew as close as four before halftime, then grabbed their only lead, 30-29, with 3 minutes, 35 seconds remaining in the third quarter after Tanner Jones converted a traditional three-point play off an offensive rebound.

“I know with my group, they’re not going to fold, especially defensively,” Boudreau said. “We have juniors and seniors, a heavy senior group, and I thought they battled back and this group never gives up.”

The Tigers mustered 15 points from second-chance opportunities throughout the game, a combination of a tenacious Tigers effort and a shorthanded Bulldogs frontcourt. Austin Buckley led Herscher with 16 points and Gavin Hull added 12.

“That’s something we really emphasize,” Boudreau said of rebounding. “This year, we have some size and we want to use it to our advantage. We always tell our guys win the glass. That’s a big thing.”

Doty said not being able to come up with rebounds was an unusual spot for the Bulldogs.

“I’m sure it was killing (Hoekstra) watching at home,” Doty said. “You know one of the things we haven’t had to yell from the bench this year is, ‘rebound!’ We’ve been dominating teams on the boards. It’s tough with a day prep to make up for that presence. And guys are looking around, ‘Oh Joe’s going to go get that,’ but we’re finally able to suck it up in the second half, get some stops, but (No.) 21 Brennen just put us on his back there and carries us to the finish line.”

Herscher drew within one, 46-45, following a Buckley free throw with 1 minute, 55 seconds remaining in the game. Stillwell was able to get the next points for Streator, however, converting a pair of free throws after grabbing an offensive rebound. A traditional three-point play for Herscher’s Tyler Lundberg with 26 seconds remaining drew the Tigers again within three, but a Jackson Studnicki free throw, followed by an offensive put back from Stillwell, extended the Bulldogs lead back to six in the final seconds.

“A few possessions late didn’t go our way,” Boudreau said. “We just need to execute late when it matters most.”

When the final buzzer sounded, Doty let out an excited yell.

“It’s tough when you’re in a little funk in terms of outcomes,” Doty said. “It’s really tough when it’s not going your way to show up every day and treat every day the same, and treat every day like a new day to get better, and we’ve tried our hardest as a staff to emphasize preparation ... and it’s tough when you have outcomes, games in-hand, over the course of this last seven-game stretch that haven’t went our way.”

To go along with Stillwell’s 26 points, Layzeric Moton finished with 11 points and Christian Bruton six, coming off of 2 3-pointers that accounted for six of the Bulldogs’ first eight points.

Doty acknowledged the combination of a road win and finishing 6-1 through the first cycle of the conference puts the Bulldogs moving in the right direction for the rest of the season.

“We’re very pleased and ready to tackle the rest of the year,” Doty said. “We just needed that feeling again.”