Sports roundup, Dec. 10
Galesburg High School
Rock Island handed the Galesburg boys basketball team its first loss of the season, 80–45, on Dec. 9 at John Thiel Gymnasium.
Early 3-pointers from Stone Thiel and Cesaire Bile had the Streaks tied at 6–6, and the game looked like it might be a high-scoring slugfest between two undefeated teams.
But a dominant all-around first quarter from the Rocks quickly changed that. They passed, shot, rebounded and forced turnovers on their way to a 32–13 lead, with four Rock Island players combining for six 3-pointers in the period while Galesburg went cold from the field.
“They’re a very good team, very well coached, very together and unselfish,” GHS head coach Taylor Thiel said. “They move the ball real well. They don’t care who’s scoring or who’s shooting. That’s what we strive to be like — a team at the top of the Western Big Six like that.”
By halftime, Rock Island — led by 20 points from Arthur Abbey — had nearly tripled the Streaks, 61–21. The Rocks also hit 12 of 13 free throws in the half.
“We lost the game in the first half,” Thiel said. “We got down too much, too big of a deficit. I asked them to see how they would respond. I wanted them to come out in the second half with a little more energy and say, ‘Hey, we already messed that one up good enough. Let’s try to save some face here and see if we can dig down and do some good things in the second half.’”
The second half was more competitive, with the Streaks holding the Rocks to 16 points in the third, but still lost ground, 77–34. The fourth quarter was mop-up for the Rock Island bench, which scored just three points during a running clock.
Eden Mayala came off the bench and scored 10 second-half points. He finished with 11, just behind team leader Stone Thiel’s 14.
“We battled in the second half; we came back, I left the guys in and we ended up winning the second half,” Thiel said. “But that first half did us in. We just have to have better starts than that and then match intensity. Those guys, that’s a top team. That’s as good a team as I’ve seen in a while from Rock Island and in the area. So, they’re going to do good things.”
The loss puts the Streaks at 4–1 for the season and 1–1 in the conference. United Township comes to Galesburg for a 7 p.m. Dec. 12 game with a 3–2 overall record and a 1–1 conference mark.
Galesburg scoring: Tobi Kuvunipa 0, Stone Thiel 14, Keigen Crummer 0, Leslie Kelley 2, Cesaire Bile 10, Demetrious Watson 0, Eden Mayala 11, Rahkim McCellan 3, Jaxon Wyatt 5.
Rock Island scoring: Arthur Abbey 24, Deven Marshall 24, Lawson Zulu 12.
Knox College
The Knox College women’s basketball team fell into an early hole and could not quite come all the way back in a 90–83 loss at Millikin University in Decatur on Dec. 9.
Nikkel Johnson scored a game-high 35 points for the host Big Blue (4–4) to overcome 28 points from sophomore Nayeli Nidez Acuña for the Prairie Fire (3–5).
Nidez Acuña matched her career high — set Nov. 25 — by knocking down 13 of 16 field goals (.813) and 2 of 3 at the free-throw line. Her 13 made field goals tie the most by any Prairie Fire player in the last 25 years.
Bria Medina, the second-leading scorer in Division III, topped 20 points for the eighth straight game and recorded her first double-double of the season — and third of her career — with 10 rebounds.
Senior and Galesburg native Carly Smith also grabbed 10 boards, matching her season high, and junior Brook Pieper scored 10 points in her second game with Knox.
Millikin is now 11–2 all-time against the Prairie Fire, though the teams restarted the series last season, with Knox winning the matchup in Galesburg, 84–74.
Knox faces nationally ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater (5–1) at home at 3 p.m. Dec. 13. The Warhawks are ranked No. 11 in the D3hoops.com poll and No. 10 in the coaches poll this week.