HOOPESTON — With goals and milestones up for grabs, the Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin boys team made sure to reach all of its goals on Friday.
The Blue Devils broke away from pesky Paxton-Buckley-Loda in the second half on Friday and ended up with a 52-40 win in an IHSA Class 2A regional championship game at Hoopeston Area High School.
The first half saw the Panthers try to slow things down as BHRA was only up 7-5 after the first quarter.
“It was a tempo game and I thought Paxton did a good job in the first half of not being in a hurry,” BHRA coach Gary Tidwell said. “So they limited possessions on us and we didn’t capitalize on the offensive side in the first half.”
“They came out stronger than we expected,” BHRA junior guard Keison Peoples said. “We expected them to fight because they have a winning culture and a lot of pride, but I think we came out and played very well.”
The Blue Devils would score 11 points in the second quarter to have a 18-13 lead with a highlight being a 3-pointer by senior Micah Stanford. The shot put him over the 1,000-point mark for his career.
“I am at a loss for words. I am blessed to get to 1,000 points and it is everything I dreamed for,” Stanford said. “Both of the defenders shagged off and I was open for the three and was able to hit it.”
In the second half, Chaz Dubois hit three 3-pointers and Peoples scored 14 with a 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter.
“That was off a great pass from Caden (Kelemenic),” Peoples said. “I wasn’t sure about the clock but when I hit it, I felt it gave us momentum in the fourth quarter to close it out.”
“In the second half, we did a better job executing our set plays and Chaz was hot from the 3,” Tidwell said. “We had some other guys knock shots down, so when shots were falling like they did in the second half, it puts a little more pressure on them because it makes them speed their game up a bit. That was a big momentum boost at the end of the third by Keison and it was a great solid performance and great balance from everyone. When we have multiple guys score like that, we are hard to guard.”
Peoples led all scorers with 22 points and Dubois had 12 points.
“We were executing plays together, we were on fire and we felt like we couldn’t miss,” Dubois said. “We got a very special team here, We have four senior starters and one junior starter, We have great team chemistry and everything works out for us when we are all on the court.”
“Chas has been great all season, but it is more than just us two,” Peoples said. “Our whole team was finding him. Micah Stanford did a great job of finding him and everything flowed perfectly.”
“(Dubois) is a key contributor and has a lot of experience in the varsity level,” Tidwell said. “He did a great job on defense, getting a lot deflections, battled with their big guys underneath and did a great job.”
Stanford had nine points, while Keleminic had four and Anderson Thomas added three.
Robert Boyd-Meents had 11 points to lead PBL, while Ethan Williams had 10 points.
The Blue Devils are 32-1 and won their second straight regional title.
“This junior class has been very special. We won 30 games last year and 32 this year,” Tidwell said. “They are a very talented group and we have some guys that have been around the varsity level for 3-4 years now. It is a special, talented group and we just want to keep this thing going and looking forward to the sectional.”
BHRA will now travel to Peotone on Wednesday to play Southland College Prep, who won its regional on Friday with a 73-66 win over Manteno.
“There is a lot of talented teams feeding into that sectional,” Tidwell said. “We need to make sure we get the scouting report and stay locked in and just keep getting better. We have to make the most of our time in practice and with this group, we want to get to the state tournament and I think we have that ability to have that opportunity and we want to take advantage of it.”
“We are excited but we are built for it and we have been preparing for it all season,” Peoples said. “It has always been our goal. So we are going to go back to the gym and perfect our craft.”
“I think we are ready for better competition,” Dubois said. “We have been practicing very hard and we have been competing all year and we are ready for it.”