Boys basketball: Rock Falls gets rolling, pulls away from Eureka in regional semifinal

BYRON – Once Rock Falls found its rhythm, there was no stopping it.

The Rockets used a huge second-quarter surge to take control of Thursday night’s Class 2A Byron Regional semifinal against Eureka, then answered every spurt the Hornets tried to put together in a 77-64 victory.

“We came into this game with a chip on our shoulder,” junior guard Gavin Sands said. “Coming in off of the regular season, we really wanted to prove something in the postseason, and I think we really showed that tonight.”

Rock Falls (15-17) trailed 16-10 just 18 seconds into the second quarter, but turned things around quickly. Aydan Goff nailed a 3-pointer, then after two Devin Tanton free throws, Sands hit a pull-up jumper and grabbed a defensive rebound and went coast-to-coast for a layup, converting a three-point play as the Rockets took a 20-16 lead with a 10-0 run that took just over two minutes.

A Tyler Heffren 3-pointer cut the lead to 20-19, but Rock Falls closed the first half with an 11-4 run over the final 3:31.

“I feel like in the first quarter, we were a little stagnant on offense, but we got a couple of buckets to go at the start,” said Heffren who had game highs of 34 points and 12 rebounds. “Then we started rushing through a little bit in the second quarter, and that’s where they really started to make their run and gap us.”

Chevy Bates buried a 3, then Sands hit Goff on a baseline cut for a layup before Kuitim Heald found Bates wide open inside for another layup. Ryken Howard scored on a floater in the lane, then Bates cut to the basket and Goff found him for another easy bucket and a 31-21 lead with eight seconds left before halftime.

The Rockets led 31-23 at the break.

“We kept moving the ball, kept playing as a team. We kept pushing the ball; they wanted to pressure us, but we’re good with pressure,” said Bates, who finished with 14 points and seven rebounds. “It’s so much easier when we move the ball. When we’re in rhythm, everybody knocks down shots. Everybody’s able to shoot, we all can attack, we all finish – it’s just beautiful.”

Heald hit a 3 off a loose-ball scramble when Eureka (24-6) saved the ball from going out of bounds under its own basket, then Goff and Tanton took turns driving down the lane for layups and a 42-30 lead with 3:15 left in the third.

Quick passing led to a Goff 3 with 56 seconds left in the period, as Sands swung a pass to Heald, who flipped the extra pass to Goff for the open shot and a 50-39 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

“We were just really aggressive, attacking every single gap we could, and the gaps just happened to be open tonight and we got to the basket,” said Sands, who had 24 points, three rebounds, three steals and two assists. “Even if we weren’t open on the drive, we were able to kick it out and get another open shot.”

After cutting the deficit to single digits twice in the third quarter, Eureka tired again in the fourth. Heffren hit two free throws and put back his own miss to open the quarter, and the Hornets trailed 50-43.

After Bates converted a three-point play, Justis Bachman hit a pull-up in transition to make it 53-45, then Heffren answered a Sands layup off an inbounds play with a basket to make it 55-47 with 4:38 to play.

But again, Rock Falls responded. Sands drove to the basket for a layup, then the Rockets broke the Eureka press three straight possessions for Goff layups to make it 63-49 with 3:12 remaining.

“Those layups settled everyone in after we gave back a little bit of that lead,” said Goff, who had 21 points, five rebounds and two assists. “Sometimes we get out of hand and try to go too fast, but we were able to get some layups, and everyone calmed down. We let the pressure come to us, and we handled it pretty well. And when they fouled us, we hit our free throws.”

Rock Falls made 14 of its 18 free throws over the final 2:22 to salt away the game and thwart any Eureka comeback attempt. The Rockets were 23 for 29 from the line in the game.

“I felt like we had a good sense of urgency in the fourth quarter, but we just couldn’t get it done defensively at the end,” Heffren said. “They hit their free throws, and we couldn’t get stops.”

“They always had the answer,” Eureka coach Aaron Dohner added. “Our guys played hard and we tried to keep giving ourselves chances, but in the end, we just ran out of chances and they just always had the answer.”

It wasn’t just the offense that was flowing for the Rockets. While they switched to other looks for brief stints, it was their 1-3-1 half-court zone that wreaked havoc on the Hornets. Rock Falls only forced nine turnovers, but they pressured the Eureka ball-handlers and flustered the Hornets on the perimeter, knocking them completely out of sync while building the lead with layups on the other end.

“We weren’t able to attack that 1-3-1 the way we wanted to. I didn’t think our spacing was very good, I didn’t think our ball movement was very good, and they were just driving to the basket and we just weren’t able to respond to that very well,” Dohner said.

Bachman was the only other Hornet in double figures besides Heffren, and he finished with 11 points, three rebounds, three steals and two assists. Tyler Tate had nine points, five rebounds and two steals, Jake Morin added six points, three assists and two steals, and Slater Wilcox chipped in six rebounds and three assists for Eureka.

Heald had 10 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals for Rock Falls, and Howard and Tanton both had four points, three rebounds and an assist. Goff credited that balance and the intensity on both ends of the court as the key to the victory.

“Before the game, all we were talking about in the locker room was that we had something to prove, and we needed to bring the energy and bring the intensity. As Gavin said, we proved that tonight,” Goff said. “We want to prove to people that we’re a pretty solid team that can make a run. Our defense was there, we rotated and talked really well. Our offense was clicking, and we executed the way we wanted to. It just came naturally to us tonight.”

The Rockets will take on host Byron for the regional title at 6 p.m. Saturday, as the Tigers rallied to top Winnebago 47-43 in the second semifinal. Carson Buser had 15 points, Caden Considine scored 11, Ryan Tucker added eight, and Riley Kesler chipped in six for Byron.