Pecatonica's
Aurora Christian made only three of its first 15 shots and trailed 17-6. But the Eagles (24-8) then began to heat up, led by point guard Marshawn Cocroft (24 points, 10-for-14 shooting). Aided by a 10-3 edge on the offensive boards and only three turnovers in the first three quarters to Pec’s 11, Aurora Christian came back to lead 29-25 at the half.
It also hurt that Diedrich sat out for close to five minutes after falling hard trying to defend an Aurora Christian fastbreak.
“We turned the basketball over a little too much in the first half,” Heisler said. “We got rattled a little bit. And then Jaxon going down. But we have to defend better.
“The second quarter was the key to the game. We gave up 19 points, which is significantly more than we target.”
With Diedrich limping on a newly wrapped right knee, Pecatonica fell behind 35-25. A 14-4 run drew Pec even at 39 after three quarters. Aurora Christian then scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter, but Pecatonica rallied in the final five minutes to force overtime at 52-all.
“We had a tough schedule and faced a lot of adversity this year,” Gassman (10 points and eight rebounds) said. “We’ve been in that spot before.”
But this spot ended the same as the last one, with Aurora Christian winning in overtime.
“They play a lot like us: Drive, kick, shoot,” said Diedrich, who finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds. “We have to crash the boards a little harder, but we rallied. We were there.”
Aurora Christian took the lead for good, 60-57, on a 3 by Jacob Baumann (15 points) with 1:14 to play followed by a layup by Cocroft. After that, Pec never had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead.
“We didn’t play like we could have,” said junior guard Cooper Hoffman, who had 21 points and seven rebounds after scoring only four points in the first half. “At the start, we had a nice lead and then we took our foot off the gas and let them get back in it. It’s unfortunate. Both times we had a chance to put them away, but then never gave up and kept working back.”
Pecatonica finished 31-6 and set a school record for most wins for the third year in a row. And Hoffman, Gassman and Diedrich are all juniors so next year could maybe be even brighter.
“We were right there,” Hoffman said. “But there is still a lot we accomplished this year. We won our first sectional. Most wins in a season. Everything like that. Yeah, it sucks right now, but you still have to take away everything we did good this year.”
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.