Bombers battle to erase deficit, come up short in Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament title game

MACOMB, Ill. — Two of the best defensive teams in the field squared off in the championship game of the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament.

As expected, it was a grind-it-out affair.

Third-seeded Rockridge built a 10-point halftime cushion despite leading scorer Landon Bull spending the final 6:35 on the bench with two personal fouls and held on down the stretch Saturday night to outlast Macomb 36-33 in Western Hall.

The loss was the Bombers’ 10th in 16 title game appearances in their namesake tournament since 1951. The most recent of their six championships came in 2010, the last time they advanced this far.

“We knew it was going to be a grinder,” Macomb coach Jeremy Anderson said. “Whoever’s needle wasn’t closest to empty was going to prevail, and that was Rockridge.”

T.J. Wilson’s layup and free throw with 1:08 remaining put the Rockets ahead 36-31. Drew Watson’s two free throws with 42.6 seconds left pulled the Bombers within three, and they had a chance to tie it after a Carson Klemme miss with 8.4 seconds to go as the 35-second shot clock was about to expire.

However, a 3-point try from the right wing by Malachi Conley after Macomb had advanced the ball to midcourt to set up a final play fell short at the buzzer.

“We didn’t get the ball to the right guy,” Anderson said. “We hoped to get it to the top.”

Neither team allowed an opponent more than 38 points in a game during the three-day tournament, although it appeared as if that might change when 6-foot-5 center Dion Doyle established himself inside to help the Bombers go up 10-4 four minutes into the contest.

However, a 3-pointer by Caleb Cunico and three consecutive baskets by Bull, voted the tournament’s most valuable player, moved Rockridge in front for good at 14-10. Macomb managed only two more baskets in the first half to fall behind 26-16 as it struggled against the Rockets’ three-quarter-court defensive pressure.

“Our plan is always to play inside out,” Anderson said. “We want to get our post guys established first, and hopefully that opens up opportunities for our perimeter guys. They took us out of the flow of what we wanted to do offensively.”

Six consecutive points by Doyle to open the third quarter – the last a steal and coast-to-coast drive for a layup after Bull was again forced to the bench with his third personal – pulled Macomb within 26-22. Doyle had a game-high 16 points.

“Our guys did a good job finding (Doyle),” Anderson said. “He did a good job scoring inside. We need for him to do that a lot to beat good teams.”

However, the Bombers failed to score again during the final 3:31 of the period. A driving layup by Klemme and an inside bucket by Wilson extended the Rockridge lead to 30-22 entering the fourth quarter.

“We had some really good looks, but they weren’t going down,” said Anderson, whose team shot 34 percent from the field and went 1-of-12 from 3-point range. “We got the ball to the guys we wanted in good scoring spots. That’s a testament to their defense.”

A conventional three-point play by Bull, who finished with a team-high 13 points despite playing only 20 minutes, gave the Rockets a 33-24 advantage with 5:19 left. But they wouldn’t score again until Wilson’s three-point play with 68 seconds remaining as Macomb ratcheted up the defensive pressure.

The Bombers, however, could never sustain enough offense to get closer than two points. The loss snapped a six-game winning streak to drop their record to 13-4.

Rockridge made 11 of 17 field goal tries in the first half but was just 4 of 18 in the second half. Still, it improved to 12-3 and captured its fifth tournament title since 2013.

“Even though we lost, if we can use the energy we showed in the tournament to keep moving forward, this could be huge for us,” Anderson said.

Unbeaten and top-seeded Camp Point Central was unable to get on track offensively and lost twice on the final day.

The Panthers scored 20 points off 15 Macomb turnovers, but shot just 22% from the field, including 2 of 16 from 3-point range, to drop a 32-27 defensive slugfest in the semifinals.

The teams combined for just 10 points in the opening quarter and 26 in the first half, which ended with Macomb ahead 15-11. The Bombers opened their biggest lead at 30-21 with 5:15 remaining, but the only points they scored the rest of the way were two free throws by Watson with 5.5 seconds left.

Elijah Genenbacher scored all seven of his points in the fourth period for Central, the last on a 3-pointer with 3:25 to play to trim the margin to 30-25. However, the Panthers missed four consecutive jumpers before Gavin Blewett converted a layup with 7 seconds to go.

Doyle and Conley paced Macomb with 10 points apiece.

Central’s woes continued in the third-place game. Lewis Siegfried scored 22 points to lead three players in double figures and West Hancock shot a sizzling 54% from 3-point range to pull away in the second half for a 58-46 victory.

The Titans made 13 of 24 attempts from beyond the arc, with Siegfried hitting six of his 11 tries. They sank four of those in the third quarter to stretch their 27-24 halftime advantage to 46-39. A 10-4 run to open the fourth period helped seal it for West Hancock, which improved to 12-3.

Blewett finished with 17 points for Central, now 10-2.

In the first semifinal, Bull scored 10 of his game-high 18 points in the first quarter as Rockridge opened a 19-6 lead and never trailed in beating West Hancock 49-38.

Siegfried scored 16 points for the Titans, who, following a sluggish first half, pulled within 30-25 after three quarters. But Landon Wheatley hit a 3-pointer and converted on a layup, and Cunico sank another 3-pointer with 5:31 left for the Rockets to extend the lead to 38-25.

Cunico had four of the Rockets’ nine 3-pointers and finished with 13 points.

West Hancock, which beat second-seeded Illini Bluffs for the second time this season in the quarterfinals, never got closer than 10 the rest of the way. The Titans shot 26% from the field in the first half and made just 5 of 16 tries overall from 3-point range.

In the consolation bracket championship game, Tyler Heffren scored 33 points to carry two-time defending tournament champion Eureka to a 54-41 victory over Pittsfield. Javan Petty and Konner Allen scored 11 points apiece for the Saukees, who entered the tourney as the fourth seed.

Eureka (7-7) shot 60 percent from the field in the first half to build a 29-14 lead and were up 42-22 entering the fourth quarter. Pittsfield made only 5 of 24 field goal tries in the first half and shot just 28% from the field overall to fall to 12-3.