The freshman Boilermakers faced off against Sterling Newman Friday night and won big, 57-26.

“It was a great team win where all members of the team were able to get some minutes,” Coach Trenton Terry said. “The team moved the ball around really well and shot the ball with confidence which definitely helped us get out and run early.”

Leading scorers were Malaki Rodriguez with 13 and Stanley Jones with 8.

On Saturday, the freshman hosted the 45th freshman invitational tournament. 

The Boilers first matched up against a familiar opponent, Erie-Prophetstown. The team got out to a great start, led by Kyden Jones with eight straight points in the first couple of minutes of the game. 

The team kept the early momentum going through the first half and led 29-12. 

After the half was when struggles began a bit for the team, where they only scored one point the third quarter. This led to EP slowly inching closer throughout the game. 

The late run was not enough, and the Boilers pulled out the win 39-26. Leading scorer was Jones with 10 points.

The Boilers moved onto the championship where they faced off against a tough Streator team. 

One of the team’s biggest struggles this year has been putting four total quarters together. The first quarter was definitely that for the Boilers, and they trailed 6-13 early on. 

This proved to be detrimental in the long run because they could never quite catch up from that. The game was a lot of back of forth, with great defense from both sides and some tough shots were made. 

“It was definitely a great experience for the team to be able to be playing a solid team like Streator in such an exciting tournament setting,” Terry said. “The team’s effort was never in question, just some late game shots didn’t fall like we needed them to.” 

The final was 39-35 Streator. Leading scorers for the Boilers were Dane Vandevelde with 10, Rodriguez with 9 and Jones with 8. The team’s overall record moves to 10-5 on the year.