Streator’s seniors shut down Seneca sans Paxton Giertz, 54-37

STREATOR – Tuesday’s much-anticipated matchup of the area’s top scorer going against one of if not the area’s top defensive team did not happen as planned.

Due to a rolled ankle suffered in the closing minutes of Monday’s practice, Seneca all-stater Paxton Giertz and his 27 points per game did not take the Pops Dale Gymnasium floor against the Streator Bulldogs and their 43 points per game surrendered.

The Bulldogs defense, on the other hand, still did its thing.

Streator limited the Fighting Irish to 10 or fewer points in three of the game’s four quarters and 38.5% shooting overall in a 54-37 victory in a matchup of 20-win teams currently in the catbird seats for their respective conference championships.

“We’re just sticking together, you know?” said senior guard Nolan Ketcham, who added two points. “Defense, that’s what we take pride in. On the defensive side, we’re always in gaps, we’re talking, just trying to be as good a defensive team as possible. Then we let the offense come from that.

“[This season] has been fun. We [seniors] have played together since we were all young. We have that chemistry, that next-man-up mentality.”

Per usual, the Streator (21-5) starting five and first two off the bench were all seniors. Those 12th-graders ultimately provided all of the Bulldogs' statistics save for three points, two rebounds and one assist, led by post Nolan Lukach (22 points, seven rebounds) and guards Matt Williamson (15 points, six rebounds, three assists), Isaiah Weibel (six points), Tristan Finley (four points, four assists) and Jake Hagie (two points, three steals).

“Seneca’s a great team, and obviously Giertz is one of the best players we would’ve played all year, one of the best players in the area for a long time,” Bulldogs coach Beau Doty said. “It takes a little air out of the matchup when he’s not in, even for our kids ... but we had to move on and compete against a really good team still.

“I give [Seneca] a lot of credit. They did a nice job getting to spots where we haven’t been allowing teams to get to this calendar year with how we’ve been guarding, and early on I thought had us on our heels.

“Then we started to slowly take control of the game.”

Brady Sheedy scored a dozen points, Grant Siegel had nine before fouling out with just under a minute to play, and James Zydron combined six points with five assists for Seneca (23-5), which got off to a strong start, leading 8-7 early, but trailed by 14 at the half.

“I thought we competed,” Seneca coach Russ Witte said. “I did. It’s a 17-point game when you’re missing your 27-point-per-game scorer. ... It’s unfortunate, but the kids played their butts off.”

For the night, Streator outshot Seneca 53.8% (21-of-39) to 38.5% (15-of-39) from the field, was 10-of-17 from the free-throw line to the Irish’s 5-of-13, outrebounded its guests 27-22 and won the turnovers forced statistic 13-9.

It was a win – with or without Giertz – Streator felt it needed to bolster its resume in hopes of getting a top-three seed in its subsectional to likely avoid having to play a No. 1 seed in regionals. The Bulldogs host Lisle on Friday for senior night and rival Ottawa on Saturday.

As for the Irish and Giertz, Witte said he expects to have his star player back for Friday’s Tri-County Conference home showdown against Woodland.

“If this were a conference game or a regional game, he would have played,” Witte said of Giertz. “But I would rather he be pain-free by Friday than be at 60% tonight and sore again tomorrow.

“Lose the battle to win the war type of thing.”