OTTAWA — The burgeoning post-Thanksgiving rivalry between the Ottawa Pirates and Metamora Redbirds on the hardwood resumed Saturday evening, yet again with a first-place plaque at stake. And as usual, the contest wasn't decided until the final eight minutes of play.
In the end, though, the lanky Redbirds and standout junior Collin Dietz were a little bit too much for the Pirates to handle.

Dietz, Metamora's NCAA Division I prospect, was able to get out into transition several times and score at will during the second half — outpointing Ottawa by himself after the break and leading the 'Birds to a 50-42 win in the championship game of the 13th annual Dean Riley "Shootin' the Rock" Thanksgiving Tournament here at Kingman Gym.

Metamora has won the event six times in the last seven years. Ottawa hasn't claimed the crown in a decade.
"I thought we gave a championship effort tonight; they're just a little bit better," Pirates coach Mark Cooper said. "I mean, that's a good, long basketball team (six of the eight Redbirds that played stood 6-3 or taller), and, you know, we hung in there. We just weren't good enough to get it done tonight."

"Those (Ottawa) kids, they're awfully well-coached every year; it's always a battle," Redbirds coach Danny Grieves said, "so we knew that it was going to come down to the fourth quarter, and that's what happened."
Metamora (3-1), which built a 13-3 advantage behind a trio of 3-pointers from 6-foot-8-inch Thomas Hall, led 16-9 after the opening quarter. The Pirates got going in the right direction during the second stanza, outscoring the Redbirds 18-10 — half of that production courtesy of Myles Tucker (13 points) — to hold a one-point edge, 27-26, at the intermission.

"I thought we had a good bounce to us," Cooper said of the Pirates in the second quarter. "We were playing downhill. That's the way this group has to play if we're going to be successful."

Dietz (23 points) began his takeover by scoring the initial six points out of the locker room. Meanwhile, the Pirates could muster just one field goal make and four points during the third period. Despite that, they trailed by only five (36-31) through three.

However, the 6-5 Dietz went to work at the outset of the fourth quarter, quickly putting the first six points on the board to extend Metamora's margin to 11 points, 42-31. He later added a couple more takes to the hoop to put things out of reach.

Defense was the difference, though.

"We said at halftime, the defense is going to have to win it for us, and that's what happened," Grieves said. "(Tucker) had 12 (points) at the half ... and he had one point the second half. I thought our defense did a nice job of taking Ottawa out of what they do. ... We wanted their leading scorer not to get his points, (and Wyatt Hill) ended up with 15, but we held him to two field goals (made) for the first three quarters."
"I thought their length at the rim bothered a few of our shots, and they had a couple key blocks that led to some run-outs at the other end. I just thought maybe their overall size wore us down," Cooper said. "When we did get to the rim in the second half, we weren't able to finish due to their length and rim protection."
With a lone returning player having significant varsity minutes, the tournament and facing a program the caliber of Metamora was all about "growth" for the inexperienced Pirates, which finished 2-2.

"I think it's good for Ottawa and Metamora when we're able to meet in these games on Saturday night (the schools have squared off in the title tilt three times in the last five years)," Cooper said. "They've always been highly-competitive (the average point differential has been 5.7), and if you want to grow as a basketball team these are the kind of games you want to be in.
​
"We played in four tight basketball games, and those are the types of games that allow growth."
 
At Kingman Gym, Ottawa
Metamora 50, Ottawa 42
(Key: FG FT-FTA TP)
METAMORA (50) — Havens 3 5-6 11, Damery 0 0-1 0, Hall 4 0-0 12, Dietz 11 1-2 23, Bachman 0 1-2 1, Mann 0 0-0 0, Mason 1 1-2 3, Nelan 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 8-13 50.
OTTAWA (42) — Owens 1 0-0 2, Tucker 5 2-6 13, Hill 5 3-3 15, K. Brent 1 0-0 2, Evola 1 0-0 2, R. Brent 1 0-0 2, Dougherty 0 0-0 0, Carson 1 0-0 2, Gould 1 2-2 4. Totals 16 7-11 42.
Metamora (3-1) 16 10 10 14 — 50
Ottawa (2-2) 9 18 4 11 — 42
3-point goals — Metamora 4 (Hall 4); Ottawa 3 (Hill 2, Tucker 1). Rebounds — Metamora 34; Ottawa 20. Turnovers — Metamora 12; Ottawa 4. Total fouls (none fouled out) — Metamora 9; Ottawa 16.

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OTTAWA — Two pull-it-together, scrap-out-a-win, come-from-behind victories Friday have the Ottawa Pirates right where they want to be on the final day of their own Dean Riley "Shootin' the Rock" Tournament:

Playing for the championship.
​Behind a 60-58 win over Marengo earlier in the day and a 58-54 stunner Friday night over seemingly championship game-bound Oak Forest, the Ottawa Pirates punched their ticket to tonight's 5:30 p.m.title game against also 2-1 Metamora. Both teams lost their first games of the tournament Monday only to come back, win their next two and advance to the title game via the head-to-head tiebreaker.

"There's no doubt we're a work in progress," said OHS coach Mark Cooper with a chuckle, "but we're a better team now than when the week started. As much as you try to simulate things in practice, true growth takes place in a game atmosphere.

"Today we had to battle back and execute a little better down the stretch, and consequently we put ourselves in a good position Saturday. .. It was two good wins for us today."
 
Ottawa 58, Oak Forest 54
The Bengals came in unbeaten and seemed to be in control — albeit not complete control — for most of the night. The Pirates didn't take their first lead until Kendall Brent scored on a putback with 1:25 remaining to make it 52-51, then took the lead for good two dozen seconds later when he scored again, giving OHS a 54-52 advantage with a minute and a second remaining.

Ottawa then sank 4-of-6 free throws down the stretch to build a six-point lead and score the victory.
Rebounding — which had plagued the Pirates for most of the first three quarters — was the key to Ottawa's stretch run, and by game's end the hosts outrebounded the Bengals 34-33 in addition to winning the turnover battle.

"Rebounding's been an issue for three games, and we can't keep surviving unless we rebound the ball better," said Cooper. "We got by a couple games today. ... We got some contested rebounds late, and once again we didn't turn the ball over very much.

"Hey, if you're going to be on the negative side of the rebounding numbers, you'd better make sure you don't turn the ball over. We've been able to do that."

Kendall Brent, especially, was a beast on the boards late, scoring seven of his 12 points over the game's final 85 seconds in addition to pulling down nine rebounds for the night. Andrew Evola, too, had a key fourth-quarter putback on his way to seven points and a game-best 12 rebounds.

Myles Tucker scored 12 points, Wyatt Hill scored nine, Noah Gould put in eight points, and Joey Owens pitched in six points in Ottawa's second come-from-behind win of the day.

Jayson Kent with 16 points off the bench and Trevor Hausherr with 12 points led the Bengals, who will play for third today against Dixon.

"I felt like at a certain point the Ottawa guys just decided they were going to go at it and be more aggressive," Oak Forest coach Matt Manzke said, "and quite frankly I thought our guys backed down from that challenge. ... We had some opportunities (earlier in the game) that we needed to make a big shot or come up with a defensive play, but Ottawa hung around.

"I felt like every time we had a chance to make a stop or a shot and really put it to them, Ottawa stepped up."
 
Ottawa 60, Marengo 58
In the day's first tournament game, the host Pirates came out slow and were outscored 16-4 in the initial period, but poured in 25 second-quarter points to climb back into it.

The Indians held a three-point lead in the final dozen seconds before Tucker drained a game-tying 3 with 11 ticks to play and the game-winning layup just ahead of the buzzer to give Ottawa the win and keep the hosts' championship dream alive.

Tucker finished with 11 points, with Hill leading the Pirates in scoring (13 points) and assists (five). Gould also added 11 points, with Kendall Brent scoring 10, Evola finishing with eight and Russell Brent adding five.
Blaine Borhart and Aidan Kirchner scored 16 points apiece to lead the Indians, who outrebounded OHS 45-31 but lost.
 
At Kingman Gym, Ottawa
Ottawa 58, Oak Forest 54
(Key: FG-FGA FT-FTA TP)
OAK FOREST (54) — Liggins 2-10 0-1 4, Avilia 3-7 2-4 9, Balinao 3-10 0-0 6, Hausherr 5-8 3-6 13, Silha 1-2 0-0 2, Torres 2-2 0-0 4, Dukelow 0-0 0-0 0, Kent 7-9 0-1 16. Totals 23-48 5-12 54.
OTTAWA (58) — Tucker 4-9 3-5 12, Hill 2-13 3-4 9, Evola 1-8 5-6 7, Carson 1-2 0-0 2, Gould 2-8 3-4 8, K. Brent 4-9 4-6 12, R. Brent 1-2 0-0 2, Owens 3-6 0-0 6, Dougherty 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-57 18-25 58.
Oak Forest (2-1) 13 18 15  8 — 54
Ottawa (2-1)  8 15 17 18 — 58
3-point goals - OF 3-13 (Kent 2-3, Avilia 1-1, Hausherr 0-1, Liggins 0-3, Balinao 0-5); Ottawa 4-15 (Hill 2-6, Gould 1-2, Tucker 1-6, Evola 0-1). Rebounds - OF 33 (Avilia 10, Balinao 7); Ottawa 34 (Evola 12, K. Brent 9). Assists - OF 10 (four players with 2); Ottawa 9 (R. Brent 3, Owens 2). Steals - OF 4 (Hausherr 3); Ottawa 8 (Owens 3). Blocked shots - OF 2 (Hausherr 1, Balinao 1); Ottawa 2 (Tucker 1, Owens 1). Turnovers - OF 18; Ottawa 7. Total fouls (fouled out) - OF 25 (Avilia, Kent); Ottawa 14 (none).
 
At Kingman Gym, Ottawa
Ottawa 60, Marengo 58
(Key: FG-FGA FT-FTA TP)
OTTAWA (60) — Tucker 4-10 2-4 11, Hill 5-15 0-0 13, Evola 4-9 0-0 8, K. Brent 4-8 1-1 10, Gould 4-9 1-1 11, R. Brent 2-3 0-0 5, Carson 1-3 0-0 2, Owens 0-1 0-0 0, Dougherty 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-58 4-6 60.
MARENGO (58) — Borhart 7-13 1-6 16, Kirchner 5-11 3-4 16, Schirmer 3-5 3-5 10, Bertrand 3-4 0-0 6, Rodriguez 2-4 0-1 4, Fischer 1-9 2-2 4, Shambo 1-5 0-0 2, Wascher 0-2 0-0 0, LaSota 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-54 9-18 58.

Ottawa (1-1)  4 25 11 20 — 60
Marengo (1-1) 16 16 12 14 — 58
3-point goals - Ottawa 8-24 (Hill 3-8, Gould 2-7, K. Brent 1-1, R. Brent 1-1, Tucker 1-5, Evola 0-2); Marengo 5-20 (Kirchner 3-9, Borhart 1-1, Schirmer 1-1, Shambo 0-2, Fisher 0-7). Rebounds - Ottawa 31 (K. Brent 7, Gould 6); Marengo 45 (Rodriguez 11, Schirmer 9, Bertrand 8). Assists - Ottawa 17 (Hill 5, R. Brent 5, K. Brent 4); Marengo 10 (Borhart 4). Steals - Ottawa 10 (Hill 4); Marengo 5 (Schirmer 3). Blocked shots - Ottawa 1 (Gould 1); Marengo 1 (Schirmer 1). Turnovers - Ottawa 11; Marengo 13. Total fouls (fouled out) - Ottawa 17 (K. Brent); Marengo 13 (none).

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The Ottawa Pirates are in the process of discovering their identity.
"It's the nature of having one returning player that played significant minutes (the previous season)," Pirates coach Mark Cooper said, "and you can look at it one of two ways: it's a negative because you don't have much experience returning, or we tend to look at it as a positive where we have a lot of kids pushing each other to play at a level maybe they haven't played at before."

Ottawa lost six players to Pomp and Circumstance — including all-state scoring machine and Times Player of the Year McKe Tucker — from the 2016-17 team that went 21-8 and played for a regional plaque. OHS's Class of 2017 accounted for 76.7 percent of the scoring, 79.4 percent of the rebounding, 78.7 percent of the assists, 76.2 percent of the steals and 95.7 percent of the blocked shots last season.
The lone starter back is Wyatt Hill. Kendall Brent was also in the rotation.

"If this isn't the most inexperienced team (I've had), it's right up there," said Cooper, in his 14th season at the helm of the Pirates (219-133 record — .622 winning percentage), of his 16-player roster, which consists of seven seniors, eight juniors and a sophomore, "but we're not going to use that as an excuse. You know, the expectations and the standards aren't going to change.

"There's no question we have a lot of big shoes to fill, but we had some kids that were on the sophomores or didn't play many varsity minutes last season that, you know, have been waiting their time, and they've had the level of dedication that we look for. And now it's their opportunity to play in the 7:30 game and see what type of role they can have.

"The competition level's been very good. We have a lot of kids that are fighting for minutes and positions, and it's our job as a staff to figure out the combinations to put together, which kids play the best with other kids. We have a lot of kids that we think can do some (good) things, but until we see it translate into practice and in a game, it's really hard to be able to pinpoint what we're going to be about."

One player who doesn't lack experience is the third-year varsity veteran Hill, a sharpshooting junior guard and "high-level passer" who's already got 57 games under his belt. As a 10th-grader, Hill averaged 11.8 ppg — knocking down 37.2 percent of his attempts from 3-point range (67 of 180) — 2.3 apg and 1.7 spg when he was an All-NIB 12 West Honorable Mentionee and Times All-Area Third-Team choice.

"We're putting a lot on (Wyatt's) plate, not only from a production standpoint on the floor, but a leadership position off the floor, and he's done everything we've expected and more," Cooper said. "He's a veteran piece that we have, and he's going to have to be a stabilizing force on the floor for us with so many inexperienced parts around him. And his game has really started to develop to where he puts a lot of pressure on the defense when he has the ball. So we're expecting to see a better version of Wyatt Hill this season."

The other 12th-graders besides Kendall Brent are Russell Brent, Luke Dougherty, Andrew Evola, Josh Jackson, Joey Owens and Slaten Swords. Other juniors are Tyler Carson, Noah Gould, Kyle Haerle, Keegan Landers, Aaron Koch, Ben Lundy and Alex Stevenson.

The roster also includes talented 10th-grader Myles Tucker, McKe's brother.
"Myles has a very high level of ability," Cooper said, "and now it's just a matter of getting him acclimated to varsity basketball and getting him to be able to do that on a daily basis ... but the skill set is there."
The '17-18 Pirates put forth the effort during the offseason to try and maintain the program's recent level of success this winter.

"They've taken the challenge of wanting to have a quality basketball team this season," Cooper said, "and now it's just a matter of being able to put all the pieces together to see if we can have some level of success.

"We're just kind of curious to see how this team evolves."
 
 
ROSTER
No. Player Ht. Yr.
2 Joey Owens 6-2 Sr.
3 Russell Brent 5-10 Sr.
4 Myles Tucker 6-0 So.
5 Kyle Haerle 6-0 Jr.
10 Wyatt Hill 5-10 Jr.
11 Ben Lundy 5-10 Jr.
12 Kendall Brent 5-11 Sr.
20 Luke Dougherty 6-0 Sr.
23 Andrew Evola 6-2 Sr.
24 Alex Stevenson 6-3 Jr.
25 Tyler Carson 6-3 Jr.
30 Noah Gould 6-3 Jr.
32 Keegan Landers 6-2 Jr.
33 Aaron Koch 6-5 Jr.
34 Josh Jackson 6-0 Sr.
40 Slaten Swords 6-0 Sr.
 
SCHEDULE
Date Opponent/Event Time
11/20-25 DEAN RILEY TRNY. TBA
12/1 at Rochelle 7 p.m.
12/2 ROCK ISLAND 6 p.m.
12/8 SYCAMORE 7 p.m.
12/12 at Sterling 7 p.m.
12/26-30 at Plano Trny. TBD
1/5 at Morris 7 p.m.
1/13 at Moline 6:30 p.m.
1/19 GENESEO 7 p.m.
1/23 at Yorkville 7 p.m.
1/26 ROCHELLE 7 p.m.
1/27 at Kaneland 6 p.m.
1/30 SANDWICH 7 p.m.
2/2 at La Salle-Peru 7 p.m.
2/6 YORKVILLE CHRISTIAN 7 p.m.
2/9 STERLING 7 p.m.
2/13 DEKALB 7 p.m.
2/16 at Geneseo 7 p.m.
2/20 STREATOR 7 p.m.
2/23 LA SALLE-PERU 7 p.m.

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Here is The 2017-18 Times Preseason All-Area Boys Basketball Team, as voted on earlier this week by The Times Sports staff:
FIRST TEAM
Jeremy Durdan (Jr., Flanagan-Cornell)
Wyatt Hill (Jr., Ottawa)
Dylan Patrick (Sr., Newark)
Jimmy Braddish (Jr., Sandwich)
Kyle Voytko (Jr., Woodland)
 
SECOND TEAM
Jakob Setchell (Jr., Serena)
Jack Snook (Jr., Marquette)
Collin Hjerpe (Jr., Woodland)
Mitch Vickers (Sr., Streator)
Derek May (Jr., Fieldcrest)
 
HONORABLE MENTION
Cam Grandy (Sr., Fieldcrest)
Dawson Fuller (Sr., Serena)
Wes Jolly (Sr., Streator)
Sam Grushkin (Jr., Seneca)
Beau Brown (Jr., Newark)

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