Rochelle 52, Freeport 49: Late-game struggles have hampered the Freeport boys basketball team at times during the season, and Friday night at the Sterling Regional, the Pretzels had another case of late-game issues.

After leading throughout, Rochelle stormed back and stole a 52-49 win and a regional championship.

“It was a real heartbreaker,” Freeport’s Wes Gastel said. “We had them down big and they came back.

“We all had shots we feel we should have made.”

Freeport led by as many as 14 in the first half, but Rochelle, which had struggled shooting, hit back-to-back 3s, cutting the Freeport lead to eight at halftime.

“We saw Rochelle against Sterling on Wednesday night here, and they shot the ball extremely well then, too,” Freeport coach Jeff Lawfer said. “They did it to us.

“They’ve hit a lot of big shots in this building over the last two games.”

The catalyst for the Hubs was Ben Schwartz, who scored 24 points.

“Those shots were huge,” Schwartz said. “Freeport was up in our faces and I think those two shots gave us some momentum and confidence going into the half.”

The momentum would carry over, as Rochelle would cut the lead to two at the end of the third.

“We knew they would come out hard,” Gastel said. “On a couple, we didn’t close out well, and on the others, they just made them with someone’s hand in their face.”

Rochelle would take its first lead at 45-44 with three minutes, 42 second remaining on an Andy Wilkinson 3-pointer.

The two teams would battle back-and-forth the rest of the way, with the Pretzels going ahead 49-47 on an Austin Davis 3-pointer.
But, Schwartz would hit the front end of a one-and-one on the next possession, making it 49-48.

After he missed the second, Tadd Krabbe would track down the loose ball in the corner.

After a Rochelle timeout, the ball would end up in Schwartz’s hands.

The senior dribbled just inside the lane, pulled up and hit a jumper with under 10 seconds to go.

- Scott Holland, GateHouse News Service