Boys basketball: Byron’s hot shooting sinks Rock Falls in home opener

ROCK FALLS – Once Byron had that first 3-pointer go in Friday night at Tabor Gym, the Tigers seemed to make everything.

Meanwhile, Rock Falls couldn’t get shots to fall, and then struggled with turnovers in the second half of a 59-33 Big Northern Conference loss in their home opener.

[ Photos from Rock Falls vs. Byron boys basketball ]

“We tried to move the ball around and get open shots, but shots weren’t falling for us today. I guess it was first-game jitters at home,” Kuitim Heald said. “They were just hitting shots, and we weren’t.”

Heald and Gavin Sands staked the Rockets (6-8, 1-1 BNC) to an 8-3 lead in the first four minutes of the game, but Carson Buser’s layup on a drive to the basket seemed to open the floodgates. Jack Hiveley hit a 3-pointer on Byron’s next possession, then Ryan Tucker got red-hot from beyond the arc.

The 6-foot-3 junior nailed two 3s in the final 1:49 of the first quarter, then hit three more in the first 2:37 of the second, before a tap-in putback, a baseline drive for a layup, and a driving scoop shot to close out the first half gave Byron (10-4, 1-1) a 34-16 lead at the break.

“The key to our whole season is definitely pushing it, playing with pace and getting open shots through the offense. We ran plays, set good screens and got open, and we were hitting our shots,” Tucker said. “It was a team effort. When everybody’s hitting, our confidence goes through the roof.”

“Our game plan was set around him, so I guess we just didn’t follow it,” Heald said of Tucker. “He just got wide-open looks, and there’s nothing you can do about it when he hits them.”

Buser’s reverse layup to open the third quarter was followed by a 3-pointer from Nick Kesler, and a 3 from Buser less than a minute later made it 47-20 Byron. Buser buried another 3 in the final minute of the third to answer back-to-back putbacks by Rock Falls’ Sands and Devin Tanton to make it a 54-27 game heading into the fourth.

While the Rockets found some success early on by going to the basket, the Tigers turned to a 1-3-1 zone and really limited Rock Falls’ scoring chances the rest of the way. The Rockets committed 14 of their 17 turnovers in the second half, and couldn’t seem to find openings in Byron’s zone despite some swift passing and quick ball movement around the perimeter.

“The 1-3-1 definitely gets us excited. The bench gets going when we get a couple of steals,” Tucker said. “One-shot rebounds are what we want, and we did that tonight. One shot for them, and we get the rebound and that leads to offense.”

Tucker scored 22 of his game-high 26 points in the first half, and he also had five rebounds, four steals and two assists for the Tigers. Buser finished with 12 points, five rebounds and three assists, Hiveley had nine points, seven rebounds and a blocked shot, and Braylon Kilduff added five points, eight rebounds and two steals.

“We don’t play a whole lot of 1-3-1, but tonight they kind of got us a couple times on our full-court pressure, so we had to change it up,” Byron coach Matt Huels said. “We had a couple of huge runs that were just dictated by them being one-and-done; we did really well on the boards, and then we hit some shots. Ryan hit those 3s, and that kind of carried us – which was big, because it’s always been a tough place to play, and a great place to play.”

Heald, Sands and Chevy Bates scored nine points apiece to lead Rock Falls, with Bates grabbing nine rebounds and Sands pulling down four boards. Aydan Goff finished with five rebounds and the Rockets’ lone steal, Diego Hernandez added four points and three assists, and Ryken Howard chipped in three rebounds and two assists.

“The shots weren’t falling, and if we look inside a couple more times, I think we get a couple of easy baskets – and then once we get easy baskets, we can start feeling ourselves from the 3-point line,” Bates said. “It’s all effort. We didn’t give up, but all of us have to keep going. Even if we’re behind, as a team we’ve got to keep the effort up.”