Staab on Sports

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 f...

PHOTO / ALEX STAAB Bushnell, Ill. - It was a 7-0 run off the opening tip for the visiting Macomb Bombers (1-7), but that quickly turned into the parallel opposite, as the Bushnell-Prairie Lady Spartans (7-1) took control and never looked back on their way to a wild 73-57 win over the Bombers. The early run the Bombers made, all the while forcing early turnovers by the host Lady Spartans, even made Bushnell-Prairie City head coach Tony Ackers call a timeout just about 90 seconds into the game. That timeout ended up being well-called, as that run was very quickly erased, and became a 24-4 run the rest of the quarter. The Lady Spartans' run was largely paced by the efforts of Jevani Sickels at the free throw line, where she went 8-11 in the opening quarter alone. That's something that Macomb Head Coach Zach Keene knew exactly how it was happening. "The big thing was underneath the basket. She was getting rebounds, or she was getting behind us on the defense. We were...