Come Saturday, the Streator boys basketball team will visit Morton to face the Potters, ranked sixth in this week’s Class 3A Associated Press poll.

The Bulldogs hope it goes more like the first half of Wednesday night’s nonconference visit from ranked-eighth-in-3A East Peoria than the second half.

A third-quarter East Peoria blitz turned things around in a hurry for an eventual 64-36 Bulldogs defeat. But before that, Streator not only held its own but led the state-ranked Raiders by a single point at halftime.

“We knew we were playing a good team,” said Streator guard Christian Bruton, who was 3-for-3 from 3-point distance in the first half, all three of his treys giving the Bulldogs a lead, including the 21-20 halftime advantage. “We just knew we had to fight hard and come out and give them a run for what they got.

“We held them to 20 points the first half, and that’s pretty good against a state-ranked team, and we shot the ball lights-out almost. Our offense was flowing. Our defense was flowing. It was going smooth.”

All the things that went well for the Bulldogs (9-11) in the first half – slowing things down to a half-court game, shooting efficiently and taking advantage of the Raiders’ willingness to settle for 3s and miss them with 2-of-14 3-point shooting – quickly crumbled in the second half.

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Streator’s Joseph Hoekstra eyes the basket as East Peoria’s Quinton Kitt sets to block during the 1st period Wednesday at Streator. (Tom Sistak For Shaw Media)

East Peoria (18-3) began sinking shots right away in the third quarter, which allowed the visitors to set up their full-court pressure, create backcourt turnovers and cash in with easy buckets in transition.

And after those easy buckets went through and they could set up their press again, it was lather, rinse, repeat ... and repeat ... and repeat.

“Our pressure,” East Peoria coach Jarrett Brown said of the difference between the first and second halves. “Obviously, we were able to score a couple buckets and get to the backcourt and create some tempo that was in our favor.

“I thought [Streator] just did a wonderful job in the first half of controlling tempo and making us guard long possessions. ... We were on defense the whole first half, it seemed like.”

Streator’s halftime advantage became a double-digit disadvantage (36-26) less than five minutes into the third quarter, a 17-point deficit (47-30) by the end of the fourth and as large as a 30-point hole (64-34) in the closing minutes.

“Really proud of our effort,” Streator coach Beau Doty said. “Christian has been really good at getting us started lately, shooting at a high clip, and we got down five, six, and then come back with a flurry and take a lead into halftime with a clinical, 45-second defensive possession that we’ll have to clip and point to, because when we’re set and locked in, we can really defend in the half court.

“Then in the second half, we just didn’t get the opportunity to get there because of their length and their athleticism and their anticipation.”

Cole DuBois and fellow guard Jackson Ahrens were the main culprits, combining to shoot 12 of 14 in the second half and score 31 of the Raiders’ 44 second-half points. DuBois finished with a game-high 23 points, Ahrens put in 17, and 6-foot, 7-inch University of Illinois commit Quinton Kitt pitched in 16 points and seven rebounds.

“We really like our team. Quinton’s obviously a generational player,” Brown said, “but we’ve got some other ones to go with him.”

No Bulldogs scored in double digits.

Streator’s balanced effort was led by sophomore Bruton’s nine points, plus eight apiece from LA Moton and Joe Hoekstra, who also added seven rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. The hosts also received four-point efforts from both Sharonn Morton and – getting his first start of the season and excelling defensively against Kitt during Streator’s impressive first half.

Streator finished shooting 43.8% (14 of 32) from the field with 20 rebounds and 18 turnovers, eight in the third quarter alone. East Peoria shot 51.0% (25 of 49) with 29 rebounds and only seven turnovers.