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Green Devils prove too tough, upend Rockford

ROCKFORD Bo ys basketball: Osage 54, Warriors 37

Green Devils prove too tough, upend Rockford

Correspondent

Rockford played host to the Green Devils of Osage Tuesday night in a game that started out fairly close, but quickly got out of hand in the second half for the Warriors. The two teams traded blows early on in the game. Each team opened up with three-point plays, with Osage’s coming in the form of the old-fashioned variety, which freshman Jake Staudt promptly responded to with a high-arching three-point field goal. Senior Tony Hain quickly followed up with a basket of his own to give the Warriors an early two-point lead, which the Green Devils would quickly respond to with five unanswered points to take an 8-5 lead. Senior Dalton Winters scored next to bring the Warriors to within one. After Osage added another basket of their own to bring their lead back to three, Staudt struck again with his second three-point basket of the period to tie up the score at ten with 1:15 to play in the quarter. Osage would score once more before the quarter was up to take a 12-10 lead in the second quarter.

Hain tied the game up early in the second with a quick layup, but the Green Devils answered back with a threepoint basket. After a made free throw from sophomore Zach Bushbaum brought the Warriors to within two points, Osage responded by going on a seven-point run and would eventually take a 22-13 lead. The lead was finally stopped when Staudt hit his third three-point field goal of the contest to make the score 22-16, which would hold up until the end of the half.

Osage seized control of the game during the third quarter, as the Green Devils opened the half on a 6-0 run to open up a ten point lead midway through the quarter. The lead grew to as much as 16 by the end of the quarter, at which point the game was threatening to fall out of reach for the Warriors, who were outscored 20-10 during the third. Osage continued to build on the lead heading into the fourth quarter, which ballooned to over 20 points for awhile. In the end, the lead was insurmountable for the Warriors, who would eventually suffer the 54-37 loss.

“We’ve got to make sure we’re playing a full 32 minutes,” said Coach Ben Klapperich after the game. “We’ve got to be better at controlling the boards.”

The Loss drops the Warriors to 1-8 overall on the season, with a Friday night contest with North Butler looming.

“We played well for the first half, and we played decent defense at times,” Klapperich continued. “They just figured out what we were doing in the second half. They were moving the ball around a little better, being patient and picking their shots.”

Rockford’s next two games come on the road. The first is on Friday, January 8 at North Butler, and the next will be on Tuesday, January 12 at Nashua-Plainfield.

Green Devils prove too tough, upend Rockford

By Andrew Larson

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