Rochelle 77, Sterling 76: Sterling’s Joseph Bertrand gave the Fighting Illini fans in attendance a taste of what’s to come with a smooth performance, but it was the Rochelle Hubs who were celebrating a 77-76 upset victory at the end of Wednesday’s Sterling Regional semifinal matchup.
Bertrand, the 6-foot-5 forward who’s headed to the University of Illinois next year on a full-ride scholarship, scored 23 points and dished out 10 assists, and appeared to have Sterling on track for its 20th win of the season when his one-handed, highflying dunk boosted the Golden Warriors’ first-half lead to nine. But hot-shooting center Kevin Kane and the Hubs stormed back, took an early second-half lead with a 10-2 run, and fended off a late Sterling surge to move on to the regional finals against Freeport (15-13) on Friday night.
“To go against a team like this, with a guy who’s going D-I to Illinois, that’s intimidating,” said Kane, who scored 18 points on 8-for-9 shooting, and also grabbed seven rebounds. “But ever since they beat us up good the last time out, we’ve wanted revenge.”
They got it in the form of a 26-point turnaround. Sterling (19-11) rolled over Rochelle (12-16) by a 71-46 count two weeks ago, but they came with a new game plan in place Wednesday.
“Everything we had,” Rochelle coach Russ Zick said, “we threw at them.”
Bertrand had 12 first-quarter points, and then stole the spotlight with three straight moves that were worthy of Big Ten highlight films.
However, sparked by one of Ben Schwartz’s two 3-pointers — he finished with 13 points and nine rebounds — the Hubs cut into a 30-21 lead with a 10-4 run, and eventually cut the deficit to one by halftime.
There were five ties in the third quarter and 11 lead changes in the second half, but Andy Wilkinson followed up Schwartz’s final trey with one of his own, and Bertrand’s six points in the final two minutes were not enough. Clay Hadley sank a long 3 with 1.5 seconds left to cut it to one, but Rochelle completed an inbounds bomb pass just before a group of Hub fans stormed the floor at the buzzer.
“It seemed like everything they put up went in. We knew they’d come in with a chip on their shoulder, but we didn’t expect this,” said Bertrand, who was 10-for-23 from the field. “We wanted this more than anything, but I guess they just wanted it more. It’s really hard to go out like this.”
-Jay Taft, rrstar.com
