Boys basketball: Justin O’Neal, Davon Grant lead DeKalb past Sycamore

DeKALB – With Sycamore making things difficult on DeKalb’s outside shooters, coach Mike Reynolds challenged posts Justin O’Neal and Davon Grant to step up in the second half.

Grant scored the first eight DeKalb points of the second half without missing a shot, while O’Neal almost came away with a double-double in the Barbs’ 63-24 win at the NIU Convocation Center on Friday.

“It’s really just an exciting moment,” O’Neal said as the Barbs beat the Spartans at the Convocation Center for the ninth straight time. “We couldn’t lose and end our streak.”

The Barbs (16-6) won their third game in a row against the Spartans (10-13) and forced a running clock at the end. But Sycamore had a couple of early leads, and a 3-pointer by Isaiah Feuerbach had the Spartans within 13-10 early in the second quarter.

But the Barbs scored 11 of the next 13 points, led 26-14 at the break and never led by fewer than double digits in the second half.

The Barbs reached the running clock with about six minutes left in the second half when Grant got an easy layup off his steal, pushing the lead to 52-21. He finished with 17 points, four rebounds and two steals.

O’Neal had 11 points, eight points and three steals off the bench, with two of those steals leading to layups at the other end. O’Neal is 6-foot-4, Grant is 6-5, and both play in similar spots on the floor. But O’Neal has been getting more and more playing time as the season has progressed.

“It was hard, because we’re in the same spots pretty much,” O’Neal said. “But he’s trying to get more out at the perimeter now, and I’m focusing on the post. We’re still working on it.

“We both can go get the rebound, and we’ll both go strong. We can probably do a lot more if we both keep working on it.”

DeKalb coach Mike Reynolds said getting O’Neal and Grant on the court together put two high-level athletes out there for the Barbs, which is what they’ll need to compete against high-level teams in the postseason.

“[O’Neal is] just aggressive. When you’re aggressive, a lot of good things happen,” Reynolds said. “I’m proud of his maturation process over the last month of the season. He’s played really well and keeps earning more and more time.”

The duo were the only players in the game in double figures. Sean Reynolds scored seven for the Barbs, while Jackson Kees pulled down seven boards.

Before the game, Mike Reynolds said defense can sometimes go out the window in a rivalry game, but he was glad to see the Barbs hold the Spartans to 24 points. It was tied for the fewest points for either team in a game at the Convocation Center, matching the Spartans’ output in a 43-24 loss in 2015.

“I challenged our guys for 32 minutes of Barbs defense, and I think we got 32 minutes of it,” Mike Reynolds said. “We held them to 10 points in the second half, 14 in the first. I thought we played extremely hard. ... It was fun to watch.”

Carter York led the Spartans with seven points and four rebounds.

Sycamore was outscored 37-10 in the second half.

“I thought it was disappointing. We were hanging around in the first half, and I thought we were getting good looks,” Franklin said. “A lot of them just didn’t drop. Second half, we didn’t have the fight that was required to win this game.”