Streator falls to Peotone after slow start, cold-shooting night

PEOTONE — Winning a basketball game on the road, especially a conference game, is not an easy task.

Coming off a disappointing loss at Herscher on Wednesday, the Streator boys basketball team was looking to bounce back in Friday night’s trip to Illinois Central Eight Conference opponent Peotone.

However, a combination of a slow start, a chilly 20 of 58 [35%] shooting night, and a host Blue Devils team hitting 49% from the floor, including 11 of 22 from beyond the arc, was enough to send the Bulldogs to their second consecutive loss, 53-51.

“We can dissect this game a lot of different ways, but at the end of the day this game is about making shots. We struggled and they made a bunch of 3s, some from really deep.”

—  Streator boys basketball coach Beau Doty

Streator [4-2, 2-2] trailed 14-7 after the opening quarter, responded with a huge second, had a six-point lead heading to the fourth, and had a chance for potential game-tying or winning hoops in the closing seconds but could not get a shot off.

“For whatever reason, and I wish I could explain it, and especially after a disappointing effort and loss to Herscher on Wednesday, we didn’t come out ready to go,” said Streator coach Beau Doty. “We did get a spark there in the second quarter from Owen Mascal, who did a lot of good things to help us get back in it. We played well in the second half, but I don’t know how many point-blank shots we missed. We were getting good looks but just weren’t able to convert them.”

Down seven to start the second, the Bulldogs opened the frame on a 16-6 run to lead 23-20 with just under two minutes before halftime. Jack Haynes, who finished with a game-high 27 points and 18 rebounds, and Payton Benning, who finished with 16 points, combined for 19 points in the period, with Mascal netting four points, while also recording four rebounds, three assists and a steal for SHS which led 31-26 at the intermission.

“We knew they were going to make a run after the first quarter at some point,” said Peotone coach Todd Zasadil, his team now 1-3 both overall and league play. “Although we were 0-3 coming into tonight, we have been playing really good defense — holding teams to right around 50 points. If we can continue to hold teams around 50, I feel we’ll be in a lot of ball games.

“We cut our turnovers down and executed our offense better in the second half. Streator is a really good team, with really good players, and size-wise they were bigger than us. But I just thought we fought and scrapped from start to finish tonight. Like I’ve told the team since the start of the season, even if the offense is struggling, we can always give a solid effort on defense.”

Peotone’s Mason Kibelkis, who had 11 points in the first half and finished with 26, including eight 3-pointers, sank a trio of 3s in the third to offset six more points from Haynes as the visitors held a 41-35 lead going to the fourth.

The hosts tied it at both 45-45 and 48-48 on long triples from Kibelkis, but it was Carson McGrath’s trey from the left corner with 1:51 left that gave Peotone the lead for good. Payton Benning’s free throw with 1:34 cut to two at 51-49, but Kade Hupe sank both ends of a 1-and-bonus with 20.9 seconds on the clock to make it a two-possession game. The Bulldogs scored on a rebound basket by Haynes with six seconds remaining, but after a foul, a missed free throw by the Blue Devils and a time out, Streator was unable to get a shot away before the final buzzer.

“We can dissect this game a lot of different ways, but at the end of the day this game is about making shots,” said Doty. “We struggled and they made a bunch of 3s, some from really deep. Kilbelkis hurt us, but I also don’t think we gave him anything easy.

“Our effort after the opening quarter was so much better than it was on Wednesday, but this was a game of make or miss. We missed and they made key shots at key times.”