(Monmouth, ILL) The Monmouth-Roseville Titans boys basketball team was back in action on Monday night, hosting their final regular season match of the season against TRAC-West rival Erie-Prophetstown at the Shoebox of MRHS.
Erie-Prophetstown would find the hot hand early in the first quarter, as they took a 6-2 lead off the back of threes from Jeremiah Kochevar and Keegan Winckler. Titans senior Nico Avendano responded with a three of his own for M-R, and after a 6-5 Panthers lead, Jake Steele and Ayden Almaguer lifted Monmouth-Roseville to their first lead on the strength of back to back layups. Steele would trade a three ball with Erie-Prophetstown’s Evan Steimle, leading to Titans senior Tyler Finnicum knocking down a three to push M-R’s lead to 9, forcing a Panthers timeout. To wrap up the first quarter, Dame Thioubou knocked down a free throw to send the game to break with a 21-11 Titans lead.
Monmouth-Roseville would wrap up a good first half of the game with a good showing on defense in the second quarter. The Titans dominated the opening of the quarter, with a Darrion Smith layup, and Avendano’s second three of the game alongside a three ball from Ethan Clark to push the M-R lead to 31-13 with a minute to play in the half. The Panthers would get back on the board on an Evan Steimle three pointer, while Titans junior Ivan Godina would end the half with a putback at the buzzer to put M-R up 33-16 at the end of a full half of play.
After Monmouth-Roseville extended their lead to 20 on the strength of a layup from Ayden Almaguer, Erie-Prophetstown junior Connor Keegan knocked down a pair of threes to help cut the Titans lead down to 16. A three point play from Jeremiah Kochevar chipped the Titans lead down to 13 before Keegan put in a driving layup, forcing the Titans to burn a timeout with a minute to play in the third. Out of the timeout from Head Coach Jake Sottos, Ayden Almaguer would end the Panthers run with a layup of his own, and Ethan Clark kept the Titans momentum going with a three ball to push Monmouth-Roseville lead back up to 47-31 after three quarters of play.
In the final 8 minutes of play, Almaguer knocked down a three alongside a jumper from Darrion Smith to increase the Titans lead. The Panthers responded however with three straight threes to cut the lead down to 9, while a Winckler basket cut it down again to 7, forcing Monmouth-Roseville to call a timeout. Out of the Titans TO, Steele and Avendano pushed the lead back to double digits on driving layups, and after two threes from E-P cut the Titans lead to 7 points with seconds to play, Titans sophomore Cee Sarcomo would dribble the ball out to seal a 58-51 win for Monmouth-Roseville.
In the stat book for the Titans, Nico Avendano led with 17 points, Ayden Almaguer also reached double figures with 15 points. Jake Steele added in 7, while Darrion Smith poured in 6 points while also securing 9 rebounds. The win for the Titans improves their overall record to 14-15, and Monmouth-Roseville will look to keep their new found momentum going on Wednesday with a road matchup against the Macomb Bombers.
