Ottawa, Streator both open season with wins at Shootin’ the Rock

OTTAWA – The Ottawa Pirates and Streator Bulldogs boys basketball teams each opened the Dean Riley Shootin’ the Rock Thanksgiving Tournament with wins Monday night at Kingman Gym.

Ottawa used a game-changing 17-0 run to start the second half in a 65-43 triumph over Illinois Valley Central, while Streator regrouped and hung on for a 65-62 victory after allowing Pontiac to come back from a 10-point deficit in the final quarter to tie the game.

In the opening game, Oak Forest rolled past Dixon, 82-50, behind 40 points and 11 rebounds from Robbie Avila.

Ottawa 65, Illinois Valley Central 43

Ottawa (1-0) jumped out to a 17-8 first-quarter advantage as Anthony Miller and Braiden Miller each scored seven points, with two of the the latter’s points coming on a two-handed dunk off a steal that got the home fans going.

The Pirates led, 23-10, just over midway into the second after consecutive layups by Braiden Miller and Trace Roether, but IVC used an 8-0 run to close to five before the hosts went on to hold a 33-23 advantage at the break.

“We are lucky to have a special environment in this gym, and we missed a little bit of that in the spring with still the uncertainty going on,” Ottawa coach Mark Cooper said. “Even though this is a Thanksgiving tournament, a first game of the season, it was still a frenzied place to play in.

“We competed, the kids played very hard, and defensively we did some good things that we are trying to work on in practice. We have a long way to go to reach the ceiling that this group is capable of, but we’ll get there.”

IVC (0-1) opened the second half with a drive from Tyler Hutson, but the Pirates used a 3-pointer each from Aaron Threadgill and Luke Cushing, a three-point play from Anthony Miller, a free-throw line jumper from Braiden Miller, a score from Roether and back-to-back steals turned lay-ins from Cushing to blow the game open, leading 50-25 with less than two minutes to go in the third.

Cushing led the Pirates with a game-high 19 points, with five rebounds and four steals. Braiden Miller finished with a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double, while Anthony Miller had 14 points and five boards. Javarius Whitfield posted seven assists and Threadgill five.

IVC was led by 12 points from Jayden McNaught.

“With the pressing IVC was using, it wasn’t a very organized game, and we didn’t get a lot of chances in the half court,” said Cooper, his club shooting 48% from the floor compared to IVC’s 28% while also holding a 37-28 margin on the boards. “Much of what we got was in transition due to their press, but I think we showed we are more than capable of playing in that type of open game.”

Streator 65, Pontiac 62

Streator (1-0) led, 15-10, after one quarter and, 27-24, at halftime, 47-41 after three quarters and 59-49 with 4 minutes, 31 seconds to go after a two-handed dunk by Jack Haynes.

However, the Indians, their only lead 2-0 in the game’s opening minute, went on a 10-0 burst over the next 1:43 to tie the game.

“Any time you have a lead like we had there in the middle of the fourth quarter, and you lose it like we did, you have to have resolve and make plays down the stretch,” Streator coach Beau Doty said. “We did that tonight. We have some seniors that have been through this before, but we also have some guys without those experiences in tight games. They were all thrown into the fire tonight, but it is always better to learn from a win.

“It was just a really good, back-and-forth game. We kept trying to produce a knockout punch when we had it at eight or 10, but they just coming back, so credit them for making things tough on us all night.”

Haynes sank a free throw at the 2:22 mark, and Davey Rashid added another with 55 seconds left to make it 61-59. The Bulldogs then beat the Pontiac press with Blake Ewing laying the ball in with 18 seconds on the clock. The Indians’ Riley Weber sank a long triple to cut it to 63-62 at the 11-second mark.

The Bulldogs were able to get the ball in after a timeout, and Jack Starkey was fouled and converted both ends of the one-and-bonus before Pontiac’s potential game-tying trey at the buzzer rimmed off.

Haynes paced Streator with a game-best 24 points and 15 rebounds. Christian Benning had 16 points and five assists, while Starkey added 14 points.

Pontiac was led in points by Logan Barrett (19), Kerr Bauman (16) and Weber (15).

“Our defense is obviously not where it needs to be. It will take time,” said Doty, his club shooting 49% from the field while Pontiac was at 55%. “But offensively, man, Jack Haynes really solidified himself in the paint a lot tonight. Any time we needed a basket he went and got it for us. We also had some nice contributions from the bench, including Jake Luckey, who is banged up a little bit, and Davey Rashid.

“Overall, I was pretty pleased with how we played.”