Streator slips past Manteno late, stays unbeaten in ICE

STREATOR —Like in many of their games this season the Streator boys basketball team found themselves down double digits at halftime in their early season Illinois Central Eight Conference showdown with Manteno at Pops Dale Gym on Friday.

But like all of those contests, the Bulldogs found a way to claw back for a win.

Streator trailed by eight at the intermission but used a strong and energized defensive effort and scored the final six points of the game to improve to 8-1 overall and 5-0 in league play with a 54-48 victory — its fifth in a row.

Manteno — which led 10-9 after one quarter and 22-14 at the half — had a five-game win streak snapped in falling to 6-5 and 4-1.

“We couldn’t have gotten off to a better start, getting the ball into the teeth of their zone and (forward) Nolan (Lukach) scoring three straight baskets,” Streator coach Beau Doty said. “But then Manteno made some adjustments and took the middle away. From there some of the actions we were running were a little clunky as far as flow and we just struggled to score.”

Panther’s leading scorer Ray Lee netted 14 first-half points, including a trio of 3s, but was held to just two points and two field goal attempts in the final 16 minutes.

“The two big things in the second half for us were, one, the defensive spark Isaiah gave us on Lee,” Doty said. “He had a couple steals that we were able to convert into points to quickly erased their halftime lead and the rest of the second half just making Lee work very hard to get the ball. The second thing was, like we did early, we found ways to get the ball into the middle to Matt (Williamson) and he made some really good decisions. It also helped that Blaize (Bressner) knocked down a couple 3s to keep the middle open for us.

“Like we have been, we found a way to make winning plays when we needed to, especially in those final two minutes.”

The hosts opened the third quarter on a 17-6 run, including Lukach scoring eight of his game-high 17 points, and held a 38-35 lead heading to the fourth.

The two sides battled to a 48-all deadlock with just over two minutes left. From there, an offensive rebound basket and layup by Weibel, plus a pair of free throws by Williamson helped close things out.

Williamson finished with a near triple-double of 11 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Weibel had 10 points, two assists and a pair of steals, while Bressner scored nine - including two of his three triples in the aforementioned third-quarter burst.

“It was really quiet in the locker room at halftime,” Weibel said. “We knew we weren’t playing very well either on offense or defense. We came out strong, but then, well, I don’t know. Coach Doty came in and just said we had to pick up our intensity and scrap like it says on the back of our warmups.

“I feel like we did a much better job of communicating on defense, really just playing hard and playing like we can.”

After Lee, Nate Hupe had 10 points, including back-to-back hoops that tied the game at 48-all. Braden Campbell had nine points for Manteno.

“I thought we played pretty well,” Manteno coach Zach Myers said. “We had an eight-point lead at halftime, and we talked at halftime about the adjustments Streator was going to make, specifically how they were going to turn up the pressure defensively. They did and we just didn’t respond.

“They hurt us on the offensive boards (10), and we went 4 for 12 at the free-throw line. It’s tough to win any game, but especially a road conference game when those things happen.”

Both squads are back on the hardwood Saturday as Streator hosts East Peoria at 3 p.m., while Manteno entertains Paxton-Buckley-Loda at 2:30 p.m.