Rock Falls 72 IVC 65, OT

This was a badly needed win against a very good team! And the best part is that it was far from our best night offensively. Our man-to-man defense is steadily improving and some guys are starting to anticipate and do some things we haven't seen them do up to this point which is encouraging. We were able to force 19 IVC turnovers. There is still room for improvement on both ends of the floor. I also thought we received some strong play from our bench. It was great to see Joe Linton get out there and play well for us. He has worked extremely hard and it was tough to see him lose 2/3 of the season to that shoulder injury. After shaking up the starting lineup, Shay Brown played well off of the bench for us as well.

Our FT shooting once again was shaky at best. We finished strong in the OT, but were just 29-44 for the night. We had talked about the fact that we could score in the paint on IVC and finished with 38 points in the paint plus the 29 FT's on the night. I also thought we got out and ran our break better. That's something we've been placing a strong emphasis on lately.

Tevin Rumley had a big night scoring 25 points and snagging 13 rebounds. He took over the game late on the offensive end, especially after Jake Junis fouled out late in the 4th. Junis also had a big night prior to fouling out. He scored 19 and grabbed 9 rebounds to go along with 4 assists. Matt Lauts added 9 and Joe Linton 8 for the Rockets.

I thought we showed a lot of character in this game. It would have been easy once Junis fouled out to throw in the towel and just assume it wasn't our night once again! But finally I thought we showed the mental toughness I've been waiting for and found a way to win! We had talked earlier in the week about the post-season and how teams that go deep usually have to pull out a win when one of their better players has foul trouble or goes down with an injury. It was kind of ironic how that happened right after we had talked about it.

We are in a good place right now with a lot of depth and competition for playing time. It's a good thing for a coach to have tough decisions to make when it comes to the starting line-up and playing time.