STERLING — The Byron Tigers have smothered opponents with their defense throughout the postseason, but it was their balance and efficiency on offense that fueled their effort during Monday’s IHSA 2A Super Sectional Boys Basketball Championship at Sterling High School.
Only a weekend removed from winning their first sectional championship since 2007, the Tigers walked into a raucous Musgrove Fieldhouse ready to take on Chicago Latin and seek out their first super sectional title in program history. Behind 28 points from standout senior guard Ryan Tucker and an eight-assist outing from senior guard Carson Buser, Byron shot over 61 percent from the field and drained half of its 3-point shots to cruise over the Romans for a 85-71 win.
It’s the first-ever super sectional championship for the Tigers (30-2, 8-1 Big Northern), whose history in boys basketball spans over a century. Byron will advance to compete in the IHSA 2A State Championship tournament, which begins with the semifinals on Thursday and concludes with the final round on Saturday at the State Farm Center in Champaign. The Tigers will play at 3:45 p.m on Thursday against Benton, who won over Teutopolis in the super sectional round.
“Since we started playing in the summer, I knew that we had the right guys,” Buser said. “We played a lot of games over the summer and we’re getting the job done right now, too. We like games like this where there’s a lot of running up and down the floor. Anytime we’re able to push the ball down the floor, we’re going to have a lot of players scoring the ball… Basketball is a game of runs and we knew those would go both ways, but we were always able to regroup when they made their runs. Our coaches got on us toward the end and I think that fueled us.”
Byron made its presence known throughout the first quarter, where sophomore guard Cason Newton drained two of his team-high four 3-pointers in the game. Chicago Latin (22-11, 12-0 Independent) struggled against Byron’s three-quarter court pressure early on, with the Tigers intercepting errant passes and creating fastbreak opportunities that led to easy layups.
“This group has accomplished so much and it means a lot for our kids from when we were an eight-win program a few years ago,” Byron head coach Matt Huels said. “I thought we had some better matchups and [Mbouombouo] didn’t guard Ryan [Tucker] to start the game and Ryan was able to get going early… They made their run, but we made enough stops to be successful.”
Byron’s combination of efficient scoring and tough defense allowed the Tigers to take a 28-15 lead entering the second quarter, where the Romans brought Byron within single digits behind a strong effort from guard Ryan Mbouombouo, who led Chicago Latin with 25 points on Monday. Mbouombouo spearheaded the charge for the Romans in the first half, putting home seven field goals, including four in the second quarter, from the mid-range area and under the basket.
Despite trailing 41-32 at halftime, the Romans made multiple brief runs throughout the second half, where Chicago Latin came within as few as four points of tying the score. But the Tigers had an answer for each of those runs, as Byron leaned on its senior stars including Tucker and forward Jack Hiveley, who finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Tucker added three rebounds and three assists for the Tigers, who led 60-51 after three quarters.
“All of the unseen hours we’ve put in are paying off,” Tucker said. “We’ve heard a lot of talk about teams trying to upset us, but we’ve just put our heads down and locked in. We’ve proven ourselves as history makers… I wanted to be aggressive and I didn’t want to settle for threes. This was our best game to date and to play our best game in such a big environment, it means everything to us. We knew [Latin] had some athletic players and we knew they could get into transition. We knew we had to counter that and we just played our style of basketball.”
The Tigers overcame some foul trouble in the third quarter, as Chicago Latin forced its way into the bonus with its offensive rebounding and dribble-drives to the basket. While the Romans went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line during the third quarter and 11-for-12 in the second half, Byron’s fastbreak scoring and methodical half-court offense was too much to come back from.
Four Tigers finished in double figures including sophomore forward Caden Considine, who stepped up with 13 points and two rebounds off the bench in Monday’s win. Newton added 17 points for the Tigers, who will travel to Champaign later this week eyeing their first state title.
“This is a group that has found a way to win every game,” Huels said. “We weren’t shooting the ball great coming in, but they’ve found ways on defense to limit teams from making runs. We were able to run our offensive sets tonight. We found good matchups and the kids made shots.”
