Rock Falls fends off late Dixon rally for BNC road win

DIXON – In another classic chapter of the Dixon-Rock Falls basketball rivalry, a game that looked like a somewhat stress-free win came down to the last shot.

Down eight late, the Dukes rallied in the final 1:12, but Brody Nicklaus’ last-second deep 3-pointer rimmed out and the Rockets held on for a 48-46 win Friday at Lancaster Gym.

“I thought it was good, I really did. It felt good out of my hands,” Nicklaus said of the final shot.

“It was a good look, it just didn’t fall; it’s basketball, that happens,” teammate Eli Davidson added. “We had a couple good looks in that fourth quarter that didn’t go down, and that’s kind of what it comes down to.”

“I was just kind of praying that it didn’t go in, then looking to rebound because we didn’t want them to get a put-back with two seconds left to go to OT,” Rock Falls’ Ryken Howard said. “We just tried to close out on the shooter and then crashed the boards hard. Luckily, the shot missed.”

Rock Falls (19-7, 7-2 Big Northern) used a 9-0 run around halftime to take control, and held its biggest lead – 48-40 – with less than two minutes to go.

“Staying composed, taking care of the ball, it helped us stay in control of the game and pull out the win,” Rock Falls’ Cole Mulnix said. “It was just great teamwork on offense, and when we play defense all four quarters, we’re going to get wins. Defense is going to help you in close games more than offense.”

The final sequence started as Cullen Shaner hit a leaner, then a Brady Feit free throw after a defensive stop by Dixon (22-7, 5-4 BNC) made it 48-43 with 46.7 seconds left.

Missed free throws by the Rockets – they were 0 of 6 from the line in the fourth quarter and 0 of 8 in the game – kept the lead at five, and Dixon took the rebound and sprinted down the court. Nicklaus dished to Davidson, and as the defense converged on him, he flipped it back to Nicklaus. A pump fake got a Rock Falls defender to fly by, and Nicklaus nailed the 3 to make it 48-46 with 11 seconds left.

“As a team, we just fight so hard,” Nicklaus said. “Missing one of our key players tonight in Darius [Harrington, leading scorer, ankle injury] really hurts, but we’ve had this fight all season with how bad we want to win games. We shouldn’t have been that close, and coming down to the final minute, everybody was still locked in, and that’s what kept us in that game and gave us a shot to win it.”

An offensive foul was called on the Rockets as they tried to inbound the ball after a Dixon timeout, and the Dukes took another timeout to set up a play.

Shaner inbounded the ball to Davidson cutting along the baseline. But Howard was trailing the play, and he blocked Davidson’s shot from behind. Nehemiah Menendez grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 6.7 seconds left.

“Initially, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, shoot!’ because I’m face-guarding him – I thought they were going to go for a 3 to win the game – and he slips past me,” Howard said. “I was hoping my help-side was there, and it was, and I thought, ‘Well, it’s the last play, maybe if I foul him and they get free throws, maybe he’ll miss.’ So I went for the block, and luckily I got it.”

But Dixon corralled the rebound after two missed free throws and pushed the ball up the court quickly. Nicklaus ended up with the ball on the scramble play and hoisted the 25-foot shot; it looked good the whole way, but was a little strong and caromed off the back of the rim.

“We found ourselves down eight, and a lot of teams could quit right there with less than three minutes left,” Davidson said, “but we don’t think we can’t win a game until that buzzer goes off. Until that clock hits zero, we’re ready to play hard, and that’s what we did tonight. We just fell a little short.”

Mulnix led the Rockets with 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Castaneda added 11 points and two assists. Heald had nine points, five rebounds and three assists, and Howard finished with eight points, two assists, two steals and three blocks.

“It’s amazing to win here [at Dixon], especially after our Rockford Christian loss; there was a really big bounce-back from that,” Howard said. “We knew their scorers, and just really adjusted on the fly and practiced hard to get our game plan down, and it worked.”

Davidson hit four 3s and led the Dukes with 18 points to go with two assists and two steals. Brody Nicklaus had nine points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals, and Shaner added nine points, three rebounds and four assists. Jakob Nicklaus chipped in five points and six rebounds – five on the offensive glass.

“This one hurts a little bit that we couldn’t pull it out,” Brody Nicklaus said, “but that’s only going to make us stronger. This group, we really feed off the losses; sometimes the losses help us more than the wins.”