Coming off a disappointing 18-point loss to Illini West, the Macomb High varsity boys basketball team had plenty of questions surrounding Friday’s non-conference contest against Camp Point Central at The Hangar.
The Bombers trailed 25-18 at halftime, but allowed just 10 points in the final 16 minutes to rally for a 49-35 victory.
Macomb improved to 19-9 on the season, while Central dropped to 5-19.
“This was a much-needed win, just for morale purposes to say ‘We’re OK, we steadied the ship,” said MHS coach Jeremy Anderson.
It was senior night for the Bombers, who played the contest without leading scorer Drew Watson. The senior suffered a hamstring injury in the team’s loss to Illini West.
Watson was in uniform. but did not play. “Drew is my best friend,” said MHS senior Nolan Hoge. “He’s a really good player and we need him on the team.”
“Him dressing really helped us I think because we weren’t so worried about him,” he added. “He was on the bench and really cheered us up and told us to keep going.”
“We were like ‘we had to win and it had to be for Drew,’” said Hoge.
“The big thing was how were we going to react to what happened against Illini West,” added MHS junior Carter Havens. “How were we going to bounce back.”
“This was an important game for us,” said Hoge. “Senior night is a pretty big deal and there were a lot of people in the crowd. I was really looking forward to this game.”
A Corbyn Hoosier 3-pointer in the final seconds of the opening period gave Central a 13-12 lead.
The Bomber offense struggled in the second quarter, scoring just six points.
MHS had scoreless stretches of three minutes and the final 2:30 before halftime as the Panthers got five points each from Hoosier and Braxton Kestner.
That helped Central take a seven-point lead into halftime. But the Bombers flipped the script in the second half, and as is often the case, it started with defense.
“We had to do a better job of keeping the ball in front of us,” said Anderson of the defense. “They had too many opportunities of driving past us.”
“Our intensity wasn’t there in the first half,” he added. “I think realizing we were down seven increased our intensity for sure.”
A trey by Luke Ippensen gave Central a 30-24 lead with 4:35 left in the third frame. But the Panthers did not score the remainder of the quarter.
Meanwhile the Bombers scored 14 straight points, seizing a 38-30 lead entering the final eight minutes.
Hoge and Nick Elbe each had four points, while Kellen Martin added a traditional three-point play. Isaac Leibach also added three points.
“Coach has been preaching about ‘circle the wagon’ and that’s what we did,” said Hoge. “We all came together and fought back.”
“I thought our defense did a really good job,” said Havens. “We got the energy. We were down seven at half and knew we were going to have to step up on defense and we did that.”
“The second half our offense was good,” he added. “We were cutting and passing and everybody was finding each other.”
“What got us back into it was being sound defensively,” said Anderson. “We got some stops and we were able to get some easy baskets.”
“We talked about how our go-to man has to be the open guy,” said Anderson. “We had to get ball movement to find an open guy. When you’re that guy, you have to be ready to shoot to alleviate some of that pressure.”
“I thought we did a better job of that in the third quarter,” he added.
Hoge and Havens added baskets to start the final period, upping Macomb’s lead to 42-30 before Ippensen stopped the run with a traditional three-point play with 6:38 remaining.
But Macomb outscored Central 7-2 the rest of the way to seal the victory.
Hoge and Havens topped the Bombers with 15 and 11 points respectively.
Martin added nine points, followed by Elbe with seven. Cooper Hobson chipped in four and Leinbach three for MHS.
“(This game) proved that when we come together and play ball together, it turns out real good for us,” said Hoge. “Going forward, we need to keep working as a team, moving the ball and playing how we want to play.”
Kestner topped Central with 15 points, 11 in the opening half. Hoosier added eight and Ippensen six for the Panthers.
The JV contest saw Macomb improve to 13-10 on the season by recording a 41-33 victory.
Macomb trailed 14-10 after the first quarter before outscoring Central 9-3 in the second period to take a 19-17 halftime lead.
The Bombers then outscored the Panthers 13-4 in the third frame in building a 32-21 advantage heading into the final eight minutes.
Luke Chapla topped MHS with 22 points, 13 in the second half.
Corey Robinson added eight points, followed by Kollin Knupp and Cameron Keene with four points each.
Carter Van Vleet scored two points and Levi Helling a free throw for the Bombers.
Kolin Bockhold topped Central with 11 points. The Bombers wrap up the regular season this week, starting with Tuesday’s contest at Payson-Seymour (3-21).
On Friday, the Bombers will host Monmouth-Roseville (10-17) in their last home game of the season.
“The intensity of those two games are going to help prepare us for that regional game,” said Anderson.
Macomb also found out its postseason path last week. MHS was selected as the No. 5 sub-sectional seed and will face No. 4 seed Bloomington Central Catholic (17-12) in Class 2A Regional semifinal action in Downs at Tri-Valley H.S. Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m.
