Boys basketball: Rock Falls picks up intensity, pulls away from Mendota

ROCK FALLS – After trying to find some energy on offense the entire first half Saturday night at Tabor Gym, the Rock Falls boys basketball team turned to its defense to turn the tide against Mendota.

Picking up the pressure and intensity on the defensive end after halftime, the Rockets found their offense start to run much smoother, and they pulled away for a 53-36 win over the former NCIC and Big Northern rival Trojans.

“We tried to do that in the first half as well, and it just didn’t seem to quite catch,” Rock Falls coach Zach Sandrock said. “But getting up and pressuring, that’s where we try and create the energy, and I thought the boys did a great job in the second half of creating off the defensive end.”

Mendota led 17-14 at the break, and stretched the lead to 21-14 just two minutes into the third quarter. But Timmy Heald provided the spark the Rockets were looking for from the perimeter, coming in off the bench and nailing 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions.

The first 3 cut the deficit to 21-17, then the second answered a basket by Izaiah Nanez to get Rock Falls (9-11) within 23-20. After Krew Bond hit a 3 for Mendota for a 26-20 lead, Gavin Sands answered with a 3 of his own off a feed from Heald, and that ignited a 21-3 run over the final 4:27 of the third quarter and first 2:19 of the fourth.

“When I come in, when we move the ball around, if I’m open, I shoot it; anybody on the team can shoot it, honestly,” Heald said. “But I felt confident with my shot tonight, and my team got me some great passes, and I was able to hit a couple of them.

“Once you get into the second half, you feel way more confident because you can feel the game more. In the first half, you have those jitters, and by the second half, they’re all gone and it’s easier to shoot and play with more confidence.”

That game-changing surge was the result of stronger play on both ends of the court. While Heald’s 3s seemed to take the lid off the basket on the offensive end, the Rockets also picked up their play on the other end. They turned to a full-court press and ratcheted up the intensity, forcing empty possessions and turnovers for Mendota.

The Trojans made just four field goals after the break.

“It’s so much fun. We really live for it as a team,” Sands said about the press. “We wanted to get the crowd into it, and we wanted to build some intensity so we can get up on offense, and we did that by pressuring the ball more.”

On the offensive end, after shooting just 26% (6-for-23) in the first half, Rock Falls hit 62.5% of its shots (15-for-24) in the final two quarters.

“We wanted to stay in a pack, make them kick out and shoot, and in the first half, it worked; they weren’t knocking down too many shots,” Mendota’s Bond said. “But in the second half, they started shooting better and we got a little bit out of control, and started doing some finger-pointing. That’s not what we wanted to do, and that’s not going to work very well on the court.”

Bond’s 3 was the only basket for the Trojans during the Rock Falls onslaught, and the Rockets were able to spread around the scoring. Sands and Heald each had two more baskets in the spurt, and Booker Cross and Diego Hernandez were both able to score inside.

Rock Falls assisted on 11 of its 15 field goals in the second half, and 14 of its 21 for the game.

“We talked about playing as a team, as opposed to playing as individuals, and when we started moving the ball and getting other people open shots, they started to fall and my teammates started to hit,” Sands said. “It’s so much smoother on offense when we move the ball. It’s something that we preach as a team, and it’s something that really benefits us.”

Sands opened the fourth quarter with another 3, then tipped in a missed shot two possessions later to give the Rockets a 41-29 lead. Mendota got back within nine (41-32) with 3:17 left, but Ayden Goff answered with a three-point play and a jumper for Rock Falls.

Mendota’s Isaac Guzman nailed a 3 off a Bond feed with 2:18 to play to cut the Trojans’ deficit to 48-38, but that was as close as they got.

Sands hit his fourth 3, then Cross hit a pair of free throws before Sands connected with Hernandez for a runout layup with 44 seconds to play for the final margin.

Sands led the way with 22 points, five rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks for Rock Falls, and Heald had 10 points and three assists. Goff finished with eight points, four rebounds and two assists, Hernandez had six points and eight rebounds, and Cross chipped in a strong floor game with five points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals.

After the tough first half, the Rockets shot 44.7% (21-for-47) from the field for the game, and turned an 18% (2-for-11) first-half shooting mark from 3-point range into a 31.8% night overall (7-for-22) from distance.

“The shots early didn’t quite fall, and they were packing it in, so we had trouble getting inside and playing through contact,” Sandrock said. “But the biggest thing that we keep trying to preach is we don’t care who scores, we just want to win, and the boys are really starting to pick that up. They’re moving the ball, waiting for the open, unforced shots, and they’ve done a great job the last three, four, five games of doing that, and our offense seems to be clicking when it does happen, even when shots aren’t falling.”

Bond led Mendota with 21 points and eight rebounds, and Guzman and Nanez both finished with five points; Nanez added six rebounds and two steals. Ted Landgraf finished with six rebounds and two assists for the Trojans, who missed their first seven shots of the game and finished 27.8% (10-for-36) from the field, including 28.6% (4-for-14) from 3-point range.

“We still don’t have our big guy, Rafa [Romero], so they can clog the outside so we can’t get that many open shots,” Bond said. “And I think our legs were a little tired after playing [Friday] night. We’re all coming off a COVID break, and getting back into game shape, so our shots aren’t there yet – but they’ll come.”

• At halftime, former Rock Falls coach Mike Winters presented the school with a memorial plaque in honor of Tevin Rumley, a four-year varsity starter for Winters 2006-10 – Winters’ only four-year varsity starter in 17 years of coaching – who died July 9, 2020 at the age of 28.

Winters was asked to make the presentation by Rumley’s family, and he gave a moving speech about Rumley’s passion for both basketball and life; his huge heart and love for the community and school in Rock Falls; and his kind spirit, warm personality, and dedication to being a good person.

In closing, after talking about how much Rumley loved basketball games at Tabor Gym, Winters asked that the crowd stand up and give the former Rockets star a round of applause to honor him one last time in the place he made so many memories.