Boys basketball: Bad ends to quarters lead to bad result for Streator vs. Oak Forest

OTTAWA — The Streator Bulldogs struggled in many aspects Friday afternoon against a hot-shooting basketball team from Oak Forest.

But what was glaring to see was the fact the Bulldogs just couldn’t find a way to close out any of the first three quarters with momentum throughout a lopsided, 64-38 loss to the Bengals during third-day action at the annual Dean Riley “Shootin’ The Rock” Thanksgiving Tournament at Ottawa’s historic Kingman Gym.

Streator trailed by only two points midway through the first quarter before Oak Forest closed out the opening stanza with an 8-0 run. Then in the second period – with Streator down by six – the Bengals embarked on a 12-0 rally to close out the half after another late-quarter fade by the Bulldogs.

Oak Forest would eventually add an additional 9-0 run that concluded the third frame before the benches emptied to start the fourth quarter.

Streator (0-3) finished Pool B in fourth place and will battle Marengo (0-3) – a fourth-place finisher in Pool A – for seventh place Saturday at 1 p.m. back in Kingman.

“We had trouble closing, starting and in the middle today,” Streator coach Beau Doty said. “They jumped us late in the first quarter and just absolutely dominated us from there.

“There’s no excuse for our lack of mental and physical preparation, and that falls on my shoulders. We’re young with a lot of juniors, but there are a lot of juniors on other teams too. We just have to learn to be ready to compete in every aspect of the game, and we obviously weren’t today. That’s on me.”

Bulldogs junior Christian Benning provided a game-best 19 points and five rebounds, while sophomore Nolan Lukach added eight points and four boards. But other than those efforts, nobody on Streator scored more than three points as the Bulldogs shot a chilly 15 of 44 (34%) during the contest. Oak Forest connected on 27 of 52 attempts (52%).

“I thought Christian and Nolan came with the physicality that you need to play in a varsity game,” Doty said. “Both played with force today, and as a sophomore there’s a reason why Nolan is starting for us. We’ve just got to find other guys to step up against good teams like we saw in Oak Forest this afternoon.”

With the Bengals leading 8-6 in the later stages of the opening quarter, junior DeShawn Nolan (16 points) sparked Oak Forest’s first rally with a top-of-the-key 3 that gave the Bengals a 16-6 lead after eight minutes of play.

Benning came alive in the second stanza with a three-point play at 4:05 and a deuce at 3:45 followed by Landon Muntz’s bucket at the 2:20 mark that kept the Bulldogs close, down only 22-16. But Amari Brownlee tallied seven of his nine points during the last two minutes of the half, including a left-wing triple at the buzzer that quickly upped the Bengals’ lead to 34-16 at the break after their second big run to end a quarter.

“We closed out quarters very well against a tough Streator team today,” Oak Forest coach TJ Cobbs said. “Monday against La Salle-Peru, we didn’t execute that aspect of our game even though we won. So that was an emphasis for us today against Streator, and I was proud that we responded with some great closeouts in each of the first three periods.”

The Bengals did it again with a huge run to end the third stanza. Nolan and Brownlee were keys in Oak Forest owning a 56-30 advantage with only eight minutes to contest. Junior Johnny Wiggins also added 11 points for the Bengals.

Both coaches emptied their benches entering the final frame with the game decided.

The Bulldogs hope to right the ship versus Marengo after three difficult losses.

“We will find five guys tomorrow that will compete, and it may only be five guys when we take the floor at one o’clock,” Doty said. “I hope it’s more than five, but we’ve got to find them in order to finish off this tournament on a good note.”

Oak Forest fell 69-58 to Princeton in Friday’s finale and will play for third place Saturday.