Boys basketball: Eric Rosenow facilitates DeKalb’s win over previously unbeaten Dixon

DeKALB – Two down, one more left.

The DeKalb boys basketball team handed an undefeated team its first loss of the year for the second game in a row, knocking off Dixon 60-34 on Tuesday.

The Barbs will face a third undefeated team in a row Wednesday when they host Metea Valley in a DuPage Valley Conference contest.

“We love it,” DeKalb senior Eric Rosenow said. “We love playing good teams. It’s only going to make us better for when we get late into the season. We’ll be ready for those games.”

Rosenow didn’t score Tuesday and only took one shot, but he was at the center of the offense for the Barbs (6-3) that helped take down the Dukes (8-1).

Dixon trimmed an 11-point first-half lead for DeKalb to 22-18 late in the second quarter. But the Barbs went on a 19-5 run to take command.

“We can’t let teams like that hang around,” Rosenow said. “We had to focus on defense and get rebounds, not let them get offensive rebounds because that’s where they were getting their points.”

In the third, Davon Grant had a layup and a pair of dunks, including an alley-oop. Rosenow, who unofficially finished with eight assists, fed him the ball on all three plays. Coach Mike Reynolds said ball movement was key for the Barbs, and Rosenow was literally in the middle of that.

“Eric was able to move the ball and get some nice passes to Davon, nice passes to [Jackson] Keys, nice passes to Sean [Reynolds] and Marquise [Bolden],” Reynolds said. “He kind of controlled the game from the middle of the zone. We’ll certainly need that later in the year, too.”

DeKalb reached 60 points despite a six-minute scoreless stretch in the first and second quarters after scoring the first nine points and leading by as much as 15-4.

The Barbs shot 23 of 40 from the floor and 11 of 20 from long range. Reynolds was 6 of 7 on 3-pointers and Grant was 8 for 11 from the floor. Grant finished with 16 points and Reynolds 18 for the Barbs. Keys and Bolden had eight each.

“When I get the ball if I’m not open for a shot, I make sure to try and find my teammates,” Rosenow said. “I know all of them can hit shots and make plays. So I try to find them when they are open.”

The Dukes entered Tuesday shooting 44% for the year on 3-pointers. They went 2 for 11 from long-range. Darius Harrington led the Dukes with 19 points while Austin Hicks scored eight. Bryce Feit was held scoreless but had a game-best six rebounds.

Dixon scored two points in the fourth quarter.

“They did a good job defensively and we also missed some,” Harmann said. “When you’ve been shooting as well as we have, and you turn around, this is what the other side looks like. It’s nothing for us to get too super-shook about. We’ll be ready to go.”

Mike Reynolds said the Barbs focused on taking the long ball away from Dixon, and it mostly worked. Both 3s came in the third quarter, the first one by Mason Weigle snapping a 10-0 DeKalb run and the second from Harrington snapping a 9-0 DeKalb run.

“We played a little farther out than we normally do,” Reynolds said. “We knew that was the way they could beat us. If we let them stand out there and jack wide-open 3s they would have a great shot. We saw enough film on them to know they just didn’t have one shoot or two, they had four or five. It was a challenge defensively but I thought our guys played well.”

Dixon returns to Big Northern Conference play Thursday against Stillman Valley

“I think we got a taste of something we needed,” Harmann said. “It was a great environment tonight and our kids needed to see some of that. The volume on the court was good for us to have a game like that.”

After beating United Township (6-1) on Saturday, the Barbs (6-3, 1-1 DVC) will look to hand Waubonsie Valley (8-0, 2-0) its first defeat of the year.

“We’re not oblivious to that. They’re really good,” Mike Reynolds said. “The Sun-Times told us they’re the favorites in the league, so we’ll have the favorites in our league on our home floor first and we’ll give it our best shot.”