By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
Winning basketball games in the Mid-East league is always a difficult task and for Rossville's boys, those wins have been hard to come by this season.
The Bulldawgs' fortunes changed with a narrow 46-43 home win over rival Silver Lake Friday night.
“Tonight was pretty intense that’s for sure,” said Rossville coach Eammon Bradley. “The kids deserved it. We’ve been a team that’s struggled to get all of our players to practice. COVID, football, and all of this stuff. Our guys have bought into playing hard, playing tough, playing with good defensive fundamentals… They’ve grown a lot.”
Rossville boys coach Eammon Bradley talks to his team during Friday's 46-43 win over Silver Lake. [Photo by Isaac Deer/TSN]
The Rossville win would’ve been much harder to achieve if guard Kade Perine hadn’t stepped up in a big way.
Perine has been in his element lately with 24 points on Friday night and 68 points in his last three games.
“Being more calm and collected has helped me a lot this year,” said Perine. “Getting my teammates the basketball more has helped me more. The more shots they hit, the more shots I hit.”
Rossville’s confidence was rolling early. The Dawg defense held an athletic Silver Lake offense to four points in the first quarter, while the offense scored 13.
Silver Lake would fight back and put some points on the board in the second quarter, outscoring the Dawgs, 11-9. The momentum flipped in favor of Silver Lake going into the halftime break.
Although the Eagles were in a 7-point deficit at the half, they had Rossville right where they wanted them.
Silver Lake needed to avoid the lack-of-point production in the third quarter as they did in the first. Fortunately for Rossville, the defense produced again.
The Eagles were only able to put up a slim six points in the third quarter. Rossville would have the game in their favor with the 14-point lead by the end of the third.
After struggling for most of the night to shoot the ball, the Eagles did not resist in crunch time.
In the first 5:16 of the fourth quarter, Silver Lake went on a 14-5 run, inching closer and closer to Rossville.
With 3:08 to go, Silver Lake missed four consecutive shots but collected the offensive rebounds. They would go on to miss the fifth shot and Rossville took advantage of the opportunity shortly after with a critical timeout.
Rossville would work slowly and methodically keep the basketball away from the Eagles' hands. Silver Lake would lose patience and needed to foul Rossville to get the ball back.
Perine would work his way out of double teams and the Eagles pressing defense to get the ball in his hands. Perine would be fouled three times in the closing minutes of the game which was troublesome for Silver Lake as Perine would knock down six of his eight free throws in the fourth quarter.
Silver Lake outscored Rossville in the fourth quarter, 22-11, but it wouldn’t be enough to take away Rossville’s lead.
The “War on 24” games between Silver Lake and Rossville is always emotional. In Friday night’s win, the team fed off of the energy in the gym.
“I always love beating Silver Lake,” said Perine. “I had a lot of confidence the first time we met this year and tonight. I am so glad we beat (Silver Lake).”
Rossville will take on the Wabaunsee Chargers on Tuesday.
“Wabaunsee is always a pretty tough matchup,” said Bradley. “They’re well-coached, good defensively and they are terrific offensively. I know the (previous) game wasn’t that long ago, but this is a different group. We’ve been a lot more productive in our practices.”
ROSSVILLE BOYS 46, SILVER LAKE 43
Rossville 13 9 13 11 – 46
Silver Lake 4 11 6 22 – 43
Rossville (3-13) – Perine 7 7-10 24, Patrizi 2 2-3 6, Bush 0 1-3 1, Lietz 2 0-0 4, Badura 2 2-2 8, Broce 0 2-4 2, Horak 0 1-2 1.
Silver Lake (6-11) – Mountain 3 0-0 6, Kaniper 3 1-1 7, Renfro 1 0-0 2, Heimen 3 0-2 7, C. Johnson 1 2-2 4, Womack 4 0-0 9, Vandevelde 2 2-4 6, Stithem 1 0-0 2.
3-point goals – Rossville 5 (Perine 3, Badura 2), Silver Lake 2 (Heiman, Womack). Total fouls – Rossville 13, Silver Lake 25. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls – none.
