The Rockets' 12th win of the season was yet another nail-biting affair. The score was knotted at 25-all at the end of the first half after a productive 20-point quarter by Knoxville. Will Cowan and Thomas Henry drilled two threes apiece in the third quarter to help construct an 11-point Unity lead.
Despite a valiant effort by the Blue Bullets to rally back into the contest with four players reaching double figures, Unity was able to hold off the surge in the final quarter.
David Hise and Braden Downs led the Knox County team with 12 points each. Bryar Fleisher and Beau Honeycutt chipped in 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Meanwhile, Unity had three players turn in double-digit performances.
After a 19-point output against Paxton-Buckley-Loda less than 24 hours earlier, Blake Kimball scored 18 points to lead both rosters in the shootout game. Will Cowan found his stroke from beyond the arc, draining five treys and finishing with 17 points for the Rockets.
Starter Tristan Price hit a couple of three-pointers and went 2-for-2 from the free-throw line to finish with 10 points.
Unity (12-4), currently tied 5th in the Illini Prairie standings, will have a chance to polish their record a bit. Tuesday, the Rockets host St. Thomas More at the Rocket Center and take on the Eagles in Rantoul on Friday.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | OT | F | |
| Unity | 11 | 14 | 22 | 13 | 0 | 60 |
| Knoxville | 5 | 20 | 11 | 18 | 0 | 54 |
Blake Kimball delivered points in all four quarters of Unity's road loss to Bloomington Central Catholic on March 9. The junior star led the team with 20 points and was 6-for-7 from the free throw line.
Will Cowan and Nate Drennan chipped in seven points a piece in the last game of the Rockets' 2021 basketball season. The team finished 3-9 overall, 2-6 in conference play.
More than 40 spectators were on hand on a super windy Wednesday to watch SJO's first game of the season. The outcome wasn't what the Spartans had hoped for falling 3-1 to visiting Olympia in the season opener.
A little under four minutes after the visitors scored the first goal of the game at 26.:56, SJO senior Logan Ingram answered with unassisted shot in the center slice to tie up the game 1-all in the first period.
Olympia added two more scores, one with 15 and half minutes left in the half and the other early in the second period to seal the conference win.
The Spartans are back in action for another Illini Prairie Conference dual next week on Tuesday at Unity.
Ty Pence scored 36 points in St. Joseph-Ogden's 59-51 win over St. Thomas More at home last night. Logging yet another double-double this season, the sophomore baller hauled in 13 of the team 29 rebounds against the Sabers.
Making 57% of his shots from the field, Jackson Rydell finished with 8 points. Meanwhile, Evan Ingram and Andrew Beyers contributed in the reschedule game from February with six points apiece.
SJO (8-3) plays their final game of the season on Friday against Bismarck-Henning tomorrow evening in non-conference competition. The Spartans completed their conference campaign with a 5-2 record.
St. Thomas More (4-3, 3-3) was paced by the 6-foot-3 Averi Hughes with 26 points and 12 boards.
The Unity Rockets and the Tuscola Warriors are not that far apart. How close were they?
For three and half quarters, the Rockets, playing in the friendly confines of Rocket Center, hung in there. With 4:30 left to play, the Rockets and the Warriors were tied up at 47-47. Jalen Quinn, the Warriors superstar junior, had just hit a three pointer to tie up the score. It was that last four and half minutes the Rockets could not stay with one of the better teams in the area.
Quinn would lead the run as he would nail an old fashioned three pointer at the 2:37 mark in addition to his game-tying three pointer. Quinn would finish the final quarter with 11 points to lead Tuscola, who were playing without four seniors, to a 64-54 victory.
The fourth quarter started with Unity up by five points.
They stayed one step ahead of the Warriors until the middle of the final period after Unity got points from Blake Kimball, Austin Langendorf and Tyler Hensch early in the quarter.
Tuscola was not idle either. Preston Brown and Quinn scored in the first minute of the quarter and with a a pair of Josiah Hortin three pointers, one at 6:03 and another at 5:01, had clipped the lead to one, 45-44. Kimball gave Unity their final lead of the game, when he scored at the 3:35 mark.
"We love to play Tuscola," said Matt Reed, Unity's head coach. "Quinn is a special player, anyone can see that.
"Both teams play hard and with intensity and energy. We did not want Quinn to beat us on his own."
Reed then explained: "We lost our composure in the fourth quarter. We play physical so we have a chance to win. We had a 10-point lead and with a team like that it does not take much to close that gap. We had a couple of bad possessions and they made us pay for it. Hortin's treys turned the momentum of the game."
Other than the final, the Rockets led at the other three breaks.
Holding a three-point lead (11-8) at the end of the opening stanza, a two-point (28-26) lead at the end of the first half and a five-point advantage (39-34) at the end of the third period.
Unity drew first blood in the contest, as Unity junior guard Damian Knoll hit a three pointer at the 6:15 mark. They closed the quarter with a trey as well, as senior Nate Drennan found the hole from the right wing with 1:35 left in the quarter.
The Rockets would extend their lead to as many as ten points, 28-18 with 2:17 left in the first half. Kimball nailed a three-pointer only to have the Warriors would clip the lead to just two by halftime.
After Quinn snagged a bucket in the first minute of the second half, Unity went to work.
They went on an 11-0 run as their lead ballooned to 39-28. The run started with a short jumper by Langendorf, followed by a lay in by Langendorf. Kimball would score the next five points, starting with a three pointer at 5:05 followed by a pair of free throws at the 3:20 mark. With 2:22 to play, Drennan put the ball through the rim on a regulation bucket to complete the run.
"We have played Unity four times over the last three years and they are always a physical team," said Tuscola head coach Justin Bozarth. "Unity threw some great defenses at Quinn, trying to get the ball out of his hands or denying him the ball totally. They did great on some junk defenses." The Unity Rockets are 3-9 overall. Tuscola improved to 11-4 overall. Kimball was in double figures with 24 points. Quinn led all scorers with 28 points.
Blake Kimball led the Rockets with a game-high 20 points and Nate Drennen added another 16 in their team's overtime road loss to St. Thomas More. Austin Langendorf, Henry Thomas and Damian Knoll combined their effort for 12 more points for UHS.
Unity's next game is at home against Rantoul this Friday.
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