Trenton Kyler leads second-quarter surge as DeKalb tops Eastland

DeKALB – Not even a full day after banging out a physical DuPage Valley Conference win at Naperville North, the DeKalb boys basketball team won its sixth straight game to start the season, 69-57, against Eastland on Saturday.

“It would have been easy to come in here and lay an egg,” DeKalb coach Reynolds said. “But we competed. Credit them, I thought (Eastland) played well. Especially (Kellen Henze and Drew Burkholder). They did well, and I’m proud of our guys for coming off a tough conference game, coming back today and playing hard.”

Henze poured in 19 for the Cougars (3-3), but Trenton Kyler poured in 29 for DeKalb, with Martez Jackson coming off the bench to add 21.

The Cougars led 18-17 early in the second quarter, but a Kyler 3-pointer kicked off 21-4 run – with Kyler scoring 14 of those – as the Barbs (6-0) took control of the game.

“TK is TK,” Reynolds said. “He’s the ultimate competitor. We’ve had a few guys like that in my career, and they’re always nice to coach. You just always wish they are juniors, always able to come back for another year.”

The task of guarding Henze fell to Jamarcus Winters, who held the Eastland star to just two points in the second quarter.

“It was a good game for us, a chance to guard a high-level player,” Reynolds said. “That was good and Jamarcus took that to heart in the third quarter with a little burst there. It was a chance to get everyone some playing time. After a tough conference game last night, a lot of banging around, it was nice to get a more free-flowing game up and down the floor.”

Jackson scored 13 in the second half as the Cougars never got the lead back into single-digits.

“He was able to get downhill, and when you’ve got some shooters out there making shots, it’s hard to help in,” Reynolds said. “And once they did, he did a pretty good job of kicking it out.”

By the numbers: Kaleb Dixson scored six for the Barbs, the third-leading scorer for the team. Andy Anderson scored 10 for Eastland, while Wyatt Baber scored 13.

Beyond the stats: Jackson closed the first-half scoring with a slash to the bucket, taking a no-look pass from Kyler and converting it for a 32-22 lead at the break.

They said it: “A game is always better than practice,” Reynolds said. “Especially the kids think so with as long as we’ve been sitting out. It’s good to stay in the gym and we’ll be back on the road Monday.”

Up next: The Barbs head to Rock Falls for a 7 p.m. game on Monday.