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DeKALB – Even when something went wrong for DeKalb during Friday’s game against Sycamore in the FNBO Challenge at the NIU Convocation Center, there seemed to be someone ready to correct it.
Not that the Barbs needed additional opportunities, overwhelming the Spartans, 59-38.
[ Photos: Sycamore, DeKalb boys basketball teams meet on court during FNBO Challenge at NIU ]
“We wanted to put it away early, to be real honest,” DeKalb coach Mike Reynolds said. “We wanted to defend like we are capable. I felt we did that in the first half, held them to 10 points. Our motto is defend, rebound and then run as fast as we can down the floor. I felt we were able to do that.”
When senior Marquise Bolden, who had already torched the nets with four 3-pointers, missed a dunk with a little over three minutes remaining in the third quarter, junior Davon Grant was there for him.
Grant not only snagged the rebound but he finished it with a dunk of his own as the Barbs were rolling, now ahead 40-17.
“That’s on our coaches,” Grant explained. “Coach be preaching on that. If we want to be an elite and a physical team it’s those hustle plays, it’s that effort. We got to bring it every time. Just being able to leave the bad plays in the past and just moving on to the next play. It’s all in the mindset. The loser mentality is turning one mistake into another and another.”
Bolden’s nearly identical 3-pointers from the corner, followed by another from senior Sean Reynolds, were the ingredients for a quick 9-0 run in a minute span that gave the Barbs a 9-1 lead midway through the opening quarter.
“I was a little confused because on the scouting report I’m a decent shooter.” Bolden said. “I’m shooting like 37%. I was like, if [my defender] is going to sag I’m going to shoot every time. And I was hot and they kept feeding me and I kept knocking it down.”
DeKalb (17-6) was coming off a hard-fought but tough four-point loss at Kaneland (21-1) on Tuesday.
“We knew we had to come out hard after that loss against Kaneland,” Bolden said. “It all hurt us. We didn’t do our best and we know if we want to beat the top teams in the state we have to be our best and that’s what we did tonight.”
Sycamore (17-6) saw its four-game winning streak snapped.
Josiah Mitchell’s 3-pointer completed the scoring for the Spartans in the first quarter and fellow junior Jake Shipley’s shot in the lane in the opening seconds of the second quarter got the Spartans to within 16-9.
They wouldn’t get any closer.
DeKalb followed with a 13-0 run to take a 29-9 lead. The Barbs led 31-10 at the half.
“They did a great job of jamming us up,” Sycamore coach Ethan Franklin said. “We had a lot of action to get our scorers some looks and they did a good job of pushing us out of spots. We tried to make adjustments to get guys open but they did a good job of getting stops.”
Bolden led the Barbs with 14 points. Grant scored 13 and Reynolds had eight.
“We all just work hard and we all have the end goal to make it to state and compete at the highest level,” Grant said. “We just want to compete. We always strive to get better. We do everything we’re supposed to do to be successful. We just have a lot of hardworking guys.”
Shipley scored seven points and junior Isaiah Feuerbach led the Spartans with eight.