Earlville rebounds past Streator, 38-29

EARLVILLE — Earlville senior Natalie Hall said Saturday’s game against Streator was one she personally wanted to win badly.

“This was a game that I really wanted to win after losing to them last year in a really close game,” said Hall of the two-point loss at Pops Dale last January. “We were mentally ready to go today.”

The Red Raiders used an 11-4 run to close out the first half and create a cushion, then from there hung on for a 38-29 victory to improve to 5-16 on the season.

“Toward the end, trying to hold on to the lead, I think we started to get a little nervous,” Hall said. “But we were able to hold on and that’s all that matters.”

The key stretch to end the first half was fueled by Earlville sophomore Kylie Helgesen as she netted nine of her game-high 12 points, including two 3-pointers and a pair of shots just inside the arc.

“That was a huge stretch for us,” Earlville coach Brandon Skolek said. “Kylie got hot and her teammates did a great job of getting her the ball.”

Hall finished with eight points and eight rebounds, while Jacey Helgesen and Elizabeth Vazquez each added five points, the former also with eight rebounds, four assists and three steals.

All told the hosts held a 54-40 advantage in rebounding, including grabbing 26 offensive rebounds, while holding the Bulldogs to 21% shooting and forcing 22 turnovers.

“We were relentless on the offensive boards,” Skolek said. “We’ve been keeping a stat recently where we want to get 50% of our missed shots. We’ve struggled shooting the ball this season, so the hope is we can put ourselves in positions to get second and third chances at the hoop. We did an excellent job with that today.

“I challenged the girls before the game to play solid on the defensive end. We were coming off games against Lowpoint-Washburn on Wednesday where we played great defense (24 points allowed) and then against Indian Creek on Thursday where they put up 59 points. We wanted to get back to the team we were in that first game.”

Streator (1-17) closed the gap early in the fourth to five after four points by Leah Krohe and a layup by Audrey Arambula, but a short jumper and steal turned layup with three minutes remaining by Vazquez gave Earlville a 10-point lead.

Streator was led by nine points and five rebounds from Ava Gwaltney, with Krohe adding six points and a game-best 12 rebounds, and six points from Isabel Gutierrez.

“Rebounding is something in the past few games has been a struggle and we’ve talked about it and worked on in practice,” Streator coach Jacob Durdan said. “But again today we just didn’t do a good job of not allowing multiple rebounds on the defensive end.

“We also, while it was better than recent games, had 20+ turnovers. We just didn’t execute and had way too many mental errors. We didn’t play a very good game fundamentally. It’s something we just have to keep continuing to try and get better with.”

Both teams are back in action on Monday. Earlville hosts Newark in a Little Ten Conference contest, while Streator entertains Wilmington in a Illinois Central Eight Conference game.