Boys basketball: Billy Miller, DeKalb bench roll past Roosevelt

DeKALB – After three minutes against Roosevelt on Wednesday at the 96th annual Chuck Dayton Classic, the DeKalb starters exited the game and did not return.

Up 13 at that point, Billy Miller, Alex Streb, J.T. Duffy and the DeKalb bench took over in a 65-15 win.

Miller said once it became apparent he was set for some more playing time, he wanted to prove he can play with anybody.

“I love it, man,” Miller said. “I hope I get more time to help and provide for the team.”

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DeKalb’s Billy Miller shoots an off-balance shot Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2023, during their first round game against Roosevelt in the 96th Chuck Dayton Classic boys basketball tournament at DeKalb High School. (Mark Busch)

Miller made three of his four shot attempts for seven points. He also had four rebounds, the second most in the game in 15 minutes.

Streb led all scorers with 11 while grabbing three rebounds and shooting 5 of 8, while Duffy had seven points, five rebounds and three assists.

“We’re trying to find guys who impact winning in a positive way,” DeKalb coach Mike Reynolds said. “What can you do as a player to impact winning? It’s not always about how many 3s you can make. There’s a lot of parts to the game. Can you guard, can you defend, can you play without turning the ball over, can you run stuff? I thought to a guy, all the guys did that.”

Reynolds pulled his starters with 5:08 left in the first quarter, going with his backups the rest of the way. No Barb played more than 24 minutes in the game and only two played more than 16 minutes. Jackson Kees scored six points to lead the DeKalb starters, hitting a pair of 3s.

The Barbs (8-4) scored the first 21 points and led 49-2 in the third quarter against the Rough Riders (0-9).

“We got some heat,” Miller said. “It keeps us hot. We’re good. This win is going to build us up. We worked on a lot of sets. We’re good.”

Reynolds said he liked what Miller did in his playing time Wednesday.

“He had a lot of energy and a lot of effort,” Reynolds said. “He ran the floor well. It’s a little different with the shot clock and things but I thought our guys played well. I thought Billy played with a lot of energy, which is a strength of his.”

Roosevelt was a late addition to the tournament, replacing Gary Comer after that school dropped out late last week.

“They came into a tough situation,” Reynolds said. “Once Gary Comer dropped out of the tournament, we sent lots of emails and made lots of phone calls to a lot of people. They’re the team that stepped up to the plate. We’re happy they came.”

Roosevelt falls into the consolation bracket and will face Dundee-Crown at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

D-C fell into the consolation bracket with a 52-41 loss to Geneva. The Vikings and Barbs will meet at 7:30 p.m. in a quarterfinal and a rematch of the Vikings’ 57-38 win.

The Barbs were the No. 1 seed last year ,and Geneva was eighth. This year, the Barbs are the No. 3 seed and Geneva is sixth.

“You never talk about getting one back on someone, but that left a bad taste in our mouths,” Reynolds said. “There’s still a bad taste in our mouth. We have a lot of guys back. ... We’ll find out if we’re better than we were last year.”