Belvidere North sophomore boys’ basketball team loses against Auburn

By Kaila Olsen

Reporter

BELVIDERE – On Friday, Dec. 4, at 5:30 pm, Belvidere North’s sophomore basketball team faced off against Rockford’s Auburn Knights at the Belvidere North High School gymnasium.

The game stayed close from the beginning of the first quarter until the end of the game, and both teams played hard for the win. The defense from both teams kept points from being scored for the first few minutes of the game.

Once that first shot was made, it began a back and forth pattern that stayed with teams for the rest of the game. Auburn scored a two point layup, and was directly followed by Belvidere bringing the ball down for a two point shot.

Both teams played pretty clean too. There were not many fouls or penalties against either team.

The first period ended with Auburn leading with a score of 22-24.

The second period began the same way, back and forth. Neither team jumped ahead to take a drastic lead. The two teams remained neck and neck, with neither team leading more than three points at a time.

The second period ended with a score of 35-33, with Belvidere North in the lead.
The only difference in the third period was the apparent tiredness from both teams’ players. There were more mistakes made in this period than in any other. More fouls, and turnovers, which made for each team more chances to take a bigger lead. Yet neither team ever did.

A loose ball recovered by Auburn gave them the opportunity to score extra points, which they took did. Auburn recovered the ball and shot a three pointer bringing the score to 45-54 in Auburn’s favor. This was the biggest lead of the entire game.

The fourth period wasn’t much different than the first three. Scores were made back and forth, but instead of being almost flawless of making mistakes like both teams were in the first half, both teams committed several mistakes.

Belvidere North threw the ball out of bounds a few times in the last two minutes of the game. This gave Auburn the ball back and they made plays off of each retrieved ball. The final score was 55-60, which kicked-off the night of wins for Auburn.