The Kewanee Boilers lost a hard-fought 68-61 game against Rock Falls Saturday in their final game of the Geneseo Thanksgiving Shootout and emerged with a 2-2 record. 

Blaise Lewis and Braden Clark were both named the all-tourney team. 

The Boilers held an 11-9 lead after one quarter of play and were within two points at the half, 29-27. Austin Castaneda scored 11 first half points and Gavin Sands had seven to help the Rockets maintain the slim halftime lead. 

Brady Clark scored 11 in the opening half and Blaise Lewis hit three of his five treys in the first half to help the Boilers keep pace. 

“We played a physical first half, defensively, and moved the ball well on offense to create easy opportunities for ourselves,” said Kewanee Coach Matt Clark. 

“As the game went on we didn’t adjust physically or mentally on how the game was being called which took us out of our spacing on offense and hurt us on our assignments defensively,” added Clark. 

Rock Falls outscored Kewanee 15-11 in the third quarter and held a 44-37 lead heading into the final frame. 

Both teams had a productive fourth quarter, putting up 24 points each. Kuitin Heald scored 17 second half points to help propel Rock Falls to the 68-61 win.

Lewis had two more 3-pointers in the second half and 13 points total down the stretch. Clark added seven more to his 18-point total. Lewis finished with a game-high 22 points.

Sands and Aadan Goff each added nine for the Rockets. 

“I’ve got to do a better job channeling our emotions to the positive and put them in better positions to succeed,” noted Clark.

“Rockridge and Rock Falls are going to be 20-plus win teams and we feel, as a coaching staff, that we beat ourselves in many of the situations in the two losses.”

Rockridge won the Geneseo Thanksgiving Shootout title by going 4-0 and beating 3-1 runner-up Rock Falls 49-45. 

The Boilers travel to Dixon Tuesday to take on the Dukes at 7 p.m. Dixon swept through the Pekin Thanksgiving Tournament with a 3-0 record en route to winning the title. 

Riveters

The Kewanee Riveters went 3-1 in the tourney and just missed winning the title after suffering a 54-50 overtime loss to Rock Falls.

Leading scorers were Logan Peed with 18 and Josh Dewante with 13. 

Kewanee had wins over Rockridge (34-27), Erie-Prophetstown (49-13) and Geneseo (38-34).