Streator survives wild finish, tops Ottawa 41-39 to advance to regional title game

LA SALLE – Ottawa and Streator high schools have played a whole lot of basketball games over the past 119 years. Many if not most of them were a lot like Wednesday’s early semifinal of the Class 3A La Salle-Peru Regional – intense, physical and down to the wire.

It’s safe to say, however, that none of those previous meetings ended quite like Wednesday’s 41-39 Streator victory that propelled the Bulldogs into Friday’s 6 p.m. championship game against host L-P and ended the season of the Ottawa Pirates.

“This was one we knew we had to get,” Streator senior guard Isaiah Weibel said, referencing his Bulldogs teams losing to rival Ottawa the past two falls on the football field and in the first of three meetings on the basketball court this season. “That’s how I came at it, and that’s how I tackled the obstacle.

“Our team’s filled with heart, throughout the whole bench, every player.”

After three quarters of points being hard to come by and Streator (24-8) always leading, but never by more than seven points, the fourth quarter and the urgency inherent in it brought a relative scoring landslide. A 27-21 Bulldogs advantage through three quarters stood at 36-29 with a minute remaining.

Then two things started happening: 1) Ottawa began scoring in a hurry, scoring over a quarter of their total points on the night in the final 54.1 seconds; and 2) Streator started missing free throws. A lot of them.

The Bulldogs were 5 of 16 from the free-throw line in the fourth, including three 0-for-2 trips. That opened the door for Ottawa (9-19) to stay in it, which it did behind nine fourth-quarter points from junior point guard Hezekiah Joachim.

Evan Snook’s uncontested layup with three seconds remaining, Weibel’s two free-throw misses with two seconds remaining, and a questionable timeout granted to Ottawa without possession of the ball when Weibel’s second miss bounced past the hands of two Pirates' would-be rebounders to the floor allowed the Pirates one last chance with 1.6 seconds left to stun Streator.

A desperation three-quarter-court baseball pass proved to be too tall and too hot even for 6-7 Ottawa post Owen Sanders, though, sailing out of bounds as the final horn sounded and sending the relieved Bulldogs into Friday’s regional final.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 18

Streator's Nolan Lukach grabs a rebound over Ottawa's Owen Sanders and Connor Diderich during the Class 3A Regional semifinal game on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025 in Sellett Gymnasium at L-P High School. (Scott Anderson)

“It felt like we were down three or four points the whole night,” Ottawa coach Mark Cooper said. “We just couldn’t quite get over the hump. ...

“Obviously [Streator] missed a few free throws late and gave us an opportunity, but we just never scored easily enough the whole night. They didn’t either, but it put us in a tough situation late.”

“I think the biggest thing for us was making toughness plays,” Streator coach Beau Doty said. “When the game was on the line – and obviously we’re going to need to shoot free throws better Friday night – we have guys on our team like Isaiah Weibel, Nolan Ketcham, list any of our guys, you feel good going to the end and getting big plays."

No player scored in double digits for Streator, which shot 33.3% from the field to Ottawa’s 40.6%, offsetting that by winning both the rebounding (25-21) and turnover (13-8) battles.

Tristan Finley and Nolan Lukach (nine rebounds) each scored nine points for Streator, with Weibel adding seven with seven rebounds, Matt Williamson six with four assists, Nolan Ketcham five with two steals and Blaize Bressner three with three rebounds.

Ottawa only had four players score, led by Joachim’s 14 points and 11 points with four steals, six rebounds and three blocked shots from Sanders. Snook added eight points and five rebounds, and Kyler Araujo scored six points before fouling out in his Pirates finale with 28.3 seconds to play.

“I’m really proud of our guys,” Cooper said. “They represented our program and school on a daily basis at a really high level.”

La Salle-Peru advanced to play Streator by upsetting Dixon in overtime, 53-50.