Rock Falls goes back-to-back with Shootout title

Rockets beat Sterling to win Thanksgiving tournament finale

STERLING – Friday’s Sauk Valley Shootout finale ended with the championship honors right back where it was last season, in the hands of the Rock Falls Rockets.

The Rockets defeated the Sterling Golden Warriors, 39-27, at Musgrove Fieldhouse to open the season 2-0, as they held Sterling to just three field goals in the first half and held off a fierce late run in front of a boisterous environment that comes with a rivalry game..

The Rockets’ win is the beginning of a good start to the season, but also it is the end of an era for Twin Cities basketball.

The Sauk Valley Shootout, which began in 1984 and known for many years as the New-Mor-Roc-Ster with Newman and Morrison, will be no more after this year, Rock Falls athletic director Rich Montgomery said. The tournament once had as many as six teams in the mid-2000s, but was reduced to a intra-cities event this season – after no tournament this past spring – with the Golden Warriors (1-1), Rockets and Newman, who went 0-2 this week.

“We were going to come into some resistance eventually,” Rockets coach Dan Herrera said. “Got to give credit to [Coach] Taylor Jackson and the Sterling Golden Warriors, they did a fantastic job. By no means was it over. I was expecting them to make a little bit of a run, and they did. They didn’t want the game to end on a bad note, so they were fighting and fighting.”

After Sterling’s Kathryn Rowzee scored the game’s first bucket, the Rockets’ Brooke Howard countered it with a 3-pointer from the left wing to put her team up by one. The Rockets never trailed after that, as they got out to a 5-2 first-quarter lead and an 18-7 halftime lead.

Sterling’s Addie McCombs hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 5:10 left in the second quarter to get the Golden Warriors to within one at 8-7, but a post bucket from Mallory Pinske soon put the Rockets back up by three at 10-7.

A Howard score gave the Rockets their first double-digit lead with just a few seconds left before halftime. It was Howard’s seventh point and gave Sterling an 11-point lead at the break. Howard led her team with 10 points and six steals to go along with five rebounds.

“We just had to calm down, the gym was so loud,” Howard said. “It kind of broke us down for a little bit, but we got back.”

The Rockets’ lead hit 20 at the end of three quarters with a 32-12 lead, but the Golden Warriors weren’t done. McCombs and Baylee Adami hit nothing-but-net 3-pointers in the first half of the fourth quarter to highlight a 14-4 run that saw the lead shrink to 10 points. Sterling got stops late when it had to and shot much better in the final quarter, scoring 15 points in the final 8 minutes.

Rock Falls’ lead was just too much in the end.

“I thought the girls did a nice job, got some good defensive stops when we needed them,” Herrera said.

Danali Stonitsch also had a solid game for the Rockets with nine points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals. Claire Bickett didn’t score much, but proved tough underneath the hoop with 17 rebounds.

“I think going forward, we’re going to be a good team,” Howard said. “It was definitely a team effort here.”

McCombs led the Golden Warriors with 11 points, and Olivia Turner pulled down a team-high nine rebounds. Taah Liberty, who played in the preliminary junior varsity game, added key varsity minutes and came away leading her team with four steals.

“I’m proud of our fight right now,” Jackson said. “I think we got to figure some things out defensively and offensively still, but if we continue to fight this hard, I think we’ll make a lot of growth this season.”

Rock Falls now has won the tournament 11 times, two shy of the 13 won by Sterling; the Golden Warriors missed out on its first championship since 2013.

Both Sterling and Rock Falls have road games next, and both on Tuesday: the Rockets are at Sandwich and the Golden Warriors kick off their Western Big 6 Conference season at Alleman.

Friday isn’t the only time the Twin City rivals face one another: They each other once again back at Musgrove Fieldhouse in mid-December at the Sterling Shootout.

“I’m real proud of our team,” Jackson said. “Obviously we don’t like to lose, but I know that a lot of the girls, and a lot of [Rock Falls’] too, haven’t played in a game like this. The environment and atmosphere was everything that Sterling and Rock Falls usually lives up to. We’re going to see them again in our Christmas tournament, and we’re looking to improve a lot by then, and hopefully we’re in a better spot.”

Cody Cutter

Cody Cutter

These days, Cody Cutter primarily writes for Sauk Valley Media's "Living" magazines and specialty publications in northern Illinois, including the monthly "Lake Lifestyle" magazine for Lake Carroll. He also covers sports and news on occasion; he has covered high school sports in northern Illinois for more than 20 years in online and print formats.