The Streetsboro Rockets boys’ basketball team finally got to experience what home court advantage feels like. In only their second home game of the season, the Rockets rallied in the fourth quarter to top Hudson 58-51 in an overtime thriller last Friday evening at Streetsboro High School.
“It was huge,” said Coach Nick Marcini. “We had a tough loss at Woodridge on Thursday night. We had an opportunity to put ourselves in a great position in the league and Woodridge played a great game. To come out and do what we did on Friday night was just huge.”
According to the 20-year coach, things looked bleak in the third quarter when Hudson went on an 11-4 run to take a 10-point advantage. He acknowledged that the Rockets had lost their offensive discipline after taking some poor quality shots.
Streetsboro (3-4, 2-2) responded with an 8-0 run at the end of the quarter, trimming Hudson’s lead to 40-38. The teams traded buckets in the fourth period and senior guard/forward Matthew Berry scored a go-ahead basket to push the Rockets ahead 47-46.
Hudson then ahead 48-47 but the Rockets still had time for one more possession. Junior guard Charles Ivory drove to the basket and was fouled on the shot attempt, earning a trip to the free throw line.
Having already gone zero-for-two at the free throw line in the fourth quarter, Ivory’s shooting woes continued when he missed the first shot but he buried the second one, tying the game at 48-48 to send it into overtime.
“Charles does not get a lot of time off during the game so being tired and getting up there with the game on the line, that first one was tough,” acknowledged Marcini. “Give him credit, he was stone cold. He made that second one and got us into overtime.”
The Rockets carried their momentum into overtime, outscoring Hudson by a 10-3 margin, surrendering only one field goal to the Explorers. Streetsboro moved the ball around on offense and five different players scored, propelling the Rockets to their first victory since Dec. 12.
After only shooting four-of-11 from the free throw line in regulation, the Rockets converted four of five opportunities in overtime.
“I thought we struggled throughout the game but hit the ones when they counted and that is all I can ask of these kids,” Marcini noted. “They found it when they needed it.”
In overtime period, the Rockets’ offense matched the start they had at the beginning of the game when they used a balanced offensive attack to take a 13-10 lead in the first period with five different players scoring.
“We just stayed disciplined on offense, did not rush shots, shared the ball and if we chew up a minute of possession that is great to shorten up the game especially since we have been struggling on offense,” said Marcini.
Hudson leaned on its size advantage in the second period, ignited by the duo of junior forward Nikola Mijovic and sophomore forward Nathan Judy.
The 6-foot-4 Judy and the 6-foot-6 Mijovic combined to score 14 points in the second period and Hudson outscored the Rockets 19-13, taking a three-point lead into the half. But the Rockets’ defense shut down the Hudson duo in the second half, allowing Judy and Mijovic to each only score two points.
“We have been struggling with people just beating us off of the dribble and then just cleaning up the offensive glass and I thought our guys responded,” Marcini said. “We got on them and told them you are down two points at halftime and this is a 6-1 team. We took the run and responded and it says a lot about our kids. They could have easily rolled over especially with how bad we played on Thursday night and they did not.”
Despite being an an undersized team this season and only having four seniors, the Rockets return some experience with three of their five starters back in junior forward Jackson Gula, junior guard Jack Batten and the 6-foot Ivory.
Marcini said last year served as a growing season for Streetsboro with only four seniors receiving significant varsity minutes and most of the other playing time going to sophomores.
Although the Rockets’ record is below .500, Marcini said there are more expectations being placed on this year’s squad.
“We had the training wheels on last year and we are taking them off and are expecting a lot more out of them,” he added. “We have to wipe out all of the sophomore mistakes and it is going to happen. They are growing and I think Friday night was our first real complete game where you could see what these guys can do and what we should look like.”
Streetsboro will end the year by hitting the road to face Chagrin Falls at the Ralph L. Quisenberry Gymnasium on Saturday evening at 5:30 p.m.
