Kewanee 61 Rock Falls 59

We found a way to blow a 12 point 4th quarter lead. Just a few fourth quarter stats include: 10 turnovers (15 for the game), 4-9 from the FT line, and we fouled a three-point shooter not once, but twice! One of our missed FT's was the front end of a one-and-one. We also took some ill-advised shots late in the game. All of that was disastrous for us. On top of all of that, we didn't defend well in the 2nd or the 4th quarters, giving up 22 points in each. We lost guys repeatedly that we had clearly marked in the scouting report as guys we could not leave open.

I did think we did a nice job containing Matt Carlson, who I think is the best point guard in the conference. We held him to 8 points, unfortunately 2 of those came on his game winning tip-in at the buzzer.

We did out-rebound them 31-25 on the night, but allowed 13 offensive rebounds to Kewanee. This has been a concern since day one this season. There are nights where we have rebounded well, but it has been too inconsistent. Friday will be a huge test against a very long and athletic Princeton team that out-rebounded us by 18 at their place.

Offensively I thought we played well up until the 4th quarter. We are starting to make some very good reads in our offense and we are passing the ball well. I would like to see our leaders step up and demand the ball late in the game and make better decisions with the ball. Obviously we need to make FT's and I also think that is a mental toughness thing.

Matt Lauts continues to improve for us. He had 12 points and 12 rebounds on the night. We were led by Rumley who had 18 and Junis who had 17 points on the night. Each had 3 assists and 4 rebounds also. J.C. McNinch gave us some very good energy off of the bench and grabbed 4 rebounds also.

We will need to play very well this weekend to get a couple of wins. We host Princeton on Friday and Rockford Lutheran on Saturday.