Story by Kadin Rogers
Valentine’s Day was a fitting gameday setting for a matchup between two TRAC-West rivals in the Monmouth-Roseville Titans and Sherrard Tigers. Coming into Friday night’s contest, Sherrard boasted an 8th place ranking in the latest AP rankings, and had already took down the Titans once at the Shoebox in January. M-R would come very close to writing a different story in this game, however Sherrard would find themselves on top after a gutsy fight from the Titans.
Ethan Clark would find the hot hand early for Monmouth-Roseville, knocking down three triples by the early portion of the second quarter. Nick Huston was also able to convert layups twice, while Payton Thompson’s three ball would help the Titans go up 18-16 halfway through the second quarter. Much like the first meeting between these two teams however, Sherrard was able to put together a run near the end of the first half that would be a key difference in the game. Rylan Carton would be the main catalyst behind the 12 straight points for Sherrard, before Ethan Clark broke that run up with his fourth three of the game. All said, Sherrard would take a 30-21 lead into the halftime break.
A quick score from Titans sophomore Lars Bergren, and an one down low from Huston would cut the lead down to just four points early in the third quarter, but this was met with answers from Carton and Carter Brown from Sherrard to boost their lead to 36-28. Bergren continued to find his rhythm in the period, as his back to back scores provided an answer, and helped send the game to the fourth quarter with the Titans trailing by five. Clark and Thompson would once again stay hot from beyond the arc, bringing the Tigers lead down to just one point, however Sherrard continued to justify their place in the state rankings, as when back into a corner they would find an answer. That answer coming on back to back scores from Carton to give Sherrard a 47-42 advantage. This cushion would be upheld by the Tigers down the stretch, as a last second put back from Bergren would not be enough and Sherrard would escape with a 51-48 home victory.
In the stat sheet for Monmouth-Roseville, Ethan Clark knocked down five three pointers to give him a game high 15 points, while Lars Bergren’s 14 point second half put him in second in scoring. The loss will drop the Titans overall record to 11-16, and they will have just three regular season games left before for the start of IHSA regionals. The Titans were just given their seedlings and pairings for regionals this week, as the Shoebox will be the sight of an exciting rematch on Monday February 24th between the Titans and the Kewanee Boilermakers. The winner of that contest is slated to take on the aforementioned Sherrard Tigers on February 26th.
For the replay of the WMOI radio broadcast of the game, go to the Sports Podcast section.
