Ottawa tops Rochelle 60-48 on Hall of Fame night

OTTAWA — Ottawa used an 11-0 run in the first quarter of Friday’s Interstate 8 Conference game on Hall of Fame night against visiting Rochelle to take control.

Then when the Hubs drew close at halftime, the Pirates used an 11-2 burst early in the fourth quarter to regain the momentum.

With the watchful eyes of many of the 1982-83 Ottawa team that finished with a 27-3 record and advanced to the IHSA Class AA Supersectional in attendance, Ottawa pushed the lead to as many as 20 in the fourth and eventually finished off a 60-48 triumph at Kingman Gymnasium to improve to 9-10 overall and 1-5 in league play.

Rochelle fell to 7-16 and 1-5.

The banged-up Pirates were without a pair of starters and their sixth man who are out with injuries.

“We’ve went through a stretch now where we had an inordinate number of injuries, but these guys have refused to splinter,” Ottawa coach Mark Cooper said. “I feel like we’ve come closer through this stretch as a team. Everyone is putting their hand in the huddle and saying, ‘What can I do to help the team.’ This is a very high character team and high character teams stay together in times of adversity.

“Against a team like Rochelle, which likes to get up and down the floor, we wanted to be good in our transition defense. We were too bad in that phase of the game. Overall, we just did the things we needed to do to get a win.”

Ottawa was led by Owen Sanders (18 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks, four steals) and Evan Snook (18 points, five rebounds, six assists, two blocks). Snook had seven points and Sanders six in the opening quarter to help the hosts hold a 18-7 lead.

Rochelle sliced the lead to 30-22 at halftime, but seven points from Snook, four from Sanders — two on a thunderous two-handed dunk in the final seconds — and a 3-pointer each from Hezekiah Joachim (seven points, five rebounds, three steals) and Dom Parks (five points) in the third raised the lead back to 45-31 heading to the fourth.

“We came out with a lot of energy,” Sanders said. “Coach Cooper talked to us about that 1982-83 team and we knew this was important game with one the best teams that ever played here being back and honored for the Hall of Fame. We just wanted to play a solid game for them to see.

“(On the dunk) it was a great pass from Snook and there really isn’t a better feeling knowing you’re all alone and going to get a good look of really putting one down. You just get full body chills on a play like that.”

Colt Bryson and Lucas Farabaugh each added six points for Ottawa, the latter 3 making it 57-37 with just over four minutes remaining.

Rochelle was led by 16 points, 10 rebounds and three assists from Brody Bruns.

Ottawa outshot Rochelle 45%-38%, held a 31-29 advantage on the boards and scored 23 points off of 14 Hubs' turnovers.

“I’ve known coach Mark for years and they always run really good offense, and they are tremendous in their half-court defense,” Rochelle coach Tim Thompson said. “You have to try and get a lead on them early and we just couldn’t. Ottawa looked like it was shot out of a cannon while we looked a step slow. We were able to cut into the early disadvantage, but every time Ottawa would find a way to put a run together.

“It wasn’t lack of effort on my guys' part, but we are and inside team, they were taking that away and we didn’t adjust as well as I hoped. We are a little beat up too and are a young team, but Ottawa played a very solid game tonight. They were tough.”

Both sides are back in action on Monday in nonconference games, Ottawa hosting Princeton and Rochelle entertaining Plano.