Late turnovers cost Macomb in loss to Williamsville

The opening tip on Thursday afternoon in Macomb. PHOTO / ALEX STAAB

Macomb, Ill. - What started as a good game for Macomb (4-10) against Williamsville (5-9) turned into a close, hard-fought battle, then that turned into late turnovers that would ultimately decide the game in a 64-58 win for the visiting Bullets.

Both teams had the shots falling early, as the Bombers found the bottom of the net from three on three separate occasions, with two coming from senior Grace Stufflebeam. Macomb also found a way to spread the wealth early, totaling five players in the scoring column after the opening eight minutes.

The Bullets' Maddie Roberts was able to get four points in the first, but she was far from done. It was actually Lexy Henrikson who'd lead the Bullet scoring after one, with five points.

Macomb would eventually edge Williamsville in the first quarter, 14-11.

When it came time for the seocnd quarter, the script started to flip, as Roberts began to control the game for the Bullets, not only getting multiple quality looks, but getting those looks to fall, scoring eight of the Bullets' 18 second quarter points.

On the other hand, the closest Bomber to Roberts' efforts would be freshman Ainsley Holthaus, who'd score five of her nine in the second.

It'd be the Bullets nearly scoring 20 points (18 to be exact) in the second quarter, taking a 29-26 lead into the halftime locker room.

Both the Bombers and the Bullets came out firing on all cylinders in the third quarter, combining for 38 points. Unlike the previous two quarters, there wasn't a true leading scorer.

Ironically enough for the Bullets, it was the three-point shooting that kept them in front, with Maddie Murphy, Roberts, and Henrikson each hitting a trey, while the Bombers would get a trey from Sarah Stufflebeam, who had a great third quarter overall, and junior Avery Rexroat hit two.

Stufflebeam's third quarter, by the way, included 4 steals and 2 assists, an effort that had head coach Zach Keene pleased when inquired about it postgame.

"Being such a young team, those things are going to come. For a freshman to have six assists in a game like this, that's huge. I thought she played a really good game."

Two words would be the safest bet in terms of trying to encapsulate how the fourth quarter went for Macomb. Those would be turnovers and fouls.

The Bombers would eventually turn it over 10 times in the final quarter. On top of that, the bonus began to come into play for Williamsville, who would go a near perfect 6-7 from the charity stripe.

Now Macomb wouldn't go away just yet, as threes from Grace Stufflebeam and Avery Rexroat kept the Bombers in the game, but the hosts would just run out of time, as the Williamsville Bullets would sneak away with the six-point win.

Coach Keene says the turnovers are definitely expected, just maybe not at the clip they came at today.

"We know, the way we're going to play, there's going to be some turnovers. In return of that, we're hoping we can speed them up."

Mentioned earlier were the six assists from Sarah Stufflebeam, and that's just part of 15 assists on 20 made field goals. That's a stat that had Coach Keene praising his team's efforts in distributing the basketball.

"I thought we passed the ball, especially in the paint and dropping it off to our post players a little bit."

Keene would also go on to talk about how it wasn't just the assists. He felt there were other non-scoring categories that the Bombers did well in.

"All-around, we had different people contributing, not necessarily in the scorebook, but playing defense, rebounds, or whatever it may have been."

Keene continued, talking about how a game such as Thursday's can prepare the team for future tight, late-game situations, particularly in postseason play.

"Wins and losses don't determine how you are put in the regional, it's all about getting better. You look at where we were at in the beginning of the year and where we are now, we've come a very long ways."

When asked what his message would be to the team, Keene said it was about confidence.

"Don't be discouraged just because you're not getting the wins. We're playing really good competition. Hopefully that's going to pay off for us come regional time. We have to get that confidence."

The Bombers will travel to Monmouth-Roseville at Monday, with the JV game starting at 6:00pm, and the varsity game starting at approximately 7:30pm.