By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
The Silver Lake-Rossville rivalry is a deep one that runs through the nearby towns and Silver Lake's boys basketball team played with an extra chip on its shoulder Tuesday night.
“This rivalry is huge, as you know from football,'' Silver Lake coach Johnny Roberts said after his Eagles held on for a 48-40 home win over the Bulldawgs. "They got us in football twice, we want to get them back in basketball.''
Forty-eight points doesn't necessarily light up the scoreboard, but it got the job done for the Eagles on Tuesday, with Silver Lake improving to 3-2 on the season.
“It was a gritty win,'' Roberts said. "Tonight is exactly what we needed. Wins are wins. I was proud of our guys tonight for finding ways to execute down the stretch.''
The Silver Lake bench was the catalyst in the first quarter for the Eagles, with Brogan Renfro, Tanner Martin and Dylan VandeVelde scoring 10 of the Eagles' first 12 points.
“I have a lot of confidence in them (Silver Lake’s bench),'' Roberts said. "I have confidence in all of our guys. We played 12 guys tonight and that is a good sign of how much confidence we have in our team. We need everyone to be ready in any part of the game.''
Renfro was a spark that the Eagles relied on heavily throughout the game, finishing with a team-high 14 points. Renfro attacked the paint consistently when he got the basketball in his hands.
“Brogan (Renfro) didn’t play the first four games,'' Roberts said. "We’ve been missing him with his energy of play and effort. I told him before the game that, 'Tonight is your night. It’s your night. It’s your game to get to the rim,' and he took that opportunity and ran with it.''.
Rossville’s Kade Perine, who had 22 points on the night, kept the Dawgs close with 10 points of his own in the first half.
While Perine had success in the first half, so did the Eagles. Brody Dieter and Troy Heiman were leading the way in the second quarter with half of the team’s points.
Silver Lake would hold a close 24-17 lead over Rossville at halftime.
In the second half, Rossville would chip away at Silver Lake’s lead, little by little. Contributions from Perine, Brody Lietz and Francesco Patrizi made things very interesting for the Bulldawgs.
While Rossville never took a lead throughout the game, it was able to cut the deficit to just three points in the fourth quarter.
Clutch shots made by Kamryn Kaniper and late free throws by Heiman sealed the deal for the Eagles down the stretch.
Silver Lake was happy with Tuesday night’s performance against the Bulldawgs, but Roberts' Eagles are well aware of a tough game coming up on Friday.
“We have another tough team (Rock Creek) coming up,'' Roberts said. "Rossville is a hard-nosed and rugged team, all the credit to them. We respect them (Rossville). Rock Creek will be similar. Some people are saying Rock Creek (0-5) is down this year, but we don’t look at it that way. We don’t look at them as being down at all. They lost a lot of key players that made a run at state last year, but they will be tough. There are no off nights in this league. No off nights whatsoever. We will do the things that we do well and will look forward to Friday night,” said Roberts.
SILVER LAKE BOYS 48, ROSSVILLE 40
Rossville (1-5) 7 10 13 10 – 40
Silver Lake (3-2) 12 12 11 13 – 48
Rossville (1-4) – Perine 9 1-2 22, Garcia 2 0-0 5, Lietz 2 0-1 4, Patrizi 2 0-2 4, Badura 0 3-4 3, Bush 1 0-0 2.
Silver Lake (3-2) – Renfro 7 0-0 14, Dieter 4 2-4 10, Kaniper 3 0-0 6, Heiman 2 2-2 6, Kaff 1 0-0 3, Stithem 1 1-1 3, VandeVelde 1 0-0 2, Martin 1 0-0 2, Mountain 1 0-0 2.
3-point goals – Silver Lake 1 (Kaff), Rossville 4 (Perine 3, Garcia). Fouls – Silver Lake 13, Rossville 11.
