Men’s basketball: Sauk Valley sees lead shrink, but holds off Indian Hills

DIXON – With the lead dwindling and Sauk Valley looking for somebody to make a play to stop an Indian Hills run, Dixon native Jake Gaither came up big.

The sophomore beat the shot clock with a putback with 1:05 to play to help stem the tide, and the Skyhawks held on for an 86-78 victory over the No. 12-ranked Warriors.

“I saw the shot clock was at 6 and [Jordan Brown] went baseline, so I thought, ‘I better go rebound, because it’s going to be a tough shot.’ It just came off to me and I put it back in, barely beat the clock,” Gaither said. “It was huge. Everyone was doing their part, and guys stepped up and picked it up tonight. Everyone was just in on this one.”

[ Photo from Sauk Valley vs. Indian Hills men's basketball ]

Sauk (11-5) saw a 23-point lead cut to six with 1:36 to play, as Indian Hills (12-4) outscored the Skyhawks 42-25 over a 12-minute span in the second half. After running down the shot clock, Brown’s baseline shot bounced off the side of the backboard.

Since the ball didn’t hit the rim, the shot clock didn’t reset, but Gaither swooped in to grab the rebound and bank it in on a tip-drill as the shot clock expired. That stopped the Warriors’ momentum, and Sean Burress hit four free throws over the final 45 seconds to nail down the victory.

The game was physical from the start. Sauk was 35 for 49 from the free-throw line, and Indian Hills shot 24 for 35 from the stripe as the teams were whistled for a combined 53 fouls, 29 on Indian Hills, 24 on Sauk.

“You’ve just got to know a team like that, when they’re aggressive and pressure you hard, you’ve got to attack,” said Burress, who scored 19 of his game-high 21 points on free throws. “We know they’re going to foul, so you just have to stay strong with the ball, go to the hole as strong as you can. You just have to be tough, and when you go to the free-throw line, you just knock them down.”

Both teams fought through the herky-jerky lack of flow with big runs. The Skyhawks took the early lead with a quick 11-0 run midway through the first half, then expanded it with a 17-5 surge over the first 6:25 of the second half to take a 55-32 lead with 13:35 remaining.

Hitting the glass was a big part of building the lead, as Sauk outrebounded the Warriors 51-37 and mostly limited them to one-and-done offensive trips.

“It was definitely a key to hit the boards. I just wanted to lock in on that, just rebound hard and get it out to my point guards to run the floor,” said Kabine Kaba, who snagged a game-high 11 rebounds. “It was big to get that lead. We wanted to come out strong in the first and second halves, so we just made it an emphasis to get stop after stop and get our offense going.”

After struggling to shoot the ball in the first half, especially from the perimeter, the Warriors got the offense going thanks to some full-court pressure and aggressive play on both ends of the court. They attacked the basket with baseline drives to dish off for easy layups or draw fouls to help cut into the deficit.

But in the end, the hole was just too big to dig out of.

“I just didn’t think we started the game with the right mindset that you’ve got to have to win on the road. I thought we were soft and we settled for a lot of outside jumpers, and I thought they played in attack mode and we kind of played on our heels,” Indian Hills coach Josh Sash said. “In the second half, I thought we really competed, but we have to have that kind of toughness and that mindset to start the game.”

Burress also led Sauk with six assists, while Kaba finished a double-double with 16 points. Brown had 13 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and Jaden Clarke added 13 points and six rebounds. Gaither tallied 10 points, nine rebounds, four assists and four steals, and Petia Dogale added eight points.

TJ Morris paced Indian Hills with 18 points and three assists, and Trevion LaBeaux chipped in 17 points and six rebounds. Davontae Hall had 14 points, four assists and two steals; Braden Sparks added 14 points and two assists; and Chris Mpaka finished with eight points, 10 rebounds and three blocks.