Bucs Roar Past Marengo to Class 3A Regional Final

Basketball on a Wood Court

By Bob Kopp
BDR Sports Correspondent
BELVIDERE – Head Coach Aaron Pearson and top assistant Nate Lister have a knack for getting the Bucs ready for big games.
After a respectable though rollercoaster 8-8 season in the rugged NIC-10 as the smallest school in the conference, Belvidere has taken its can’t-be-out-coached-hustled-toughed game and attitude to the playoffs with convincing wins over Woodstock North (48-30) on Monday and last night’s semi-final 69-59 victory over a talented and confident Marengo.
The second-seeded Indians came out strong in the first quarter and took a 19-12 lead into the second. “Always Revved” consensus first-team all-conference junior Austin Revolinski kept the Bucs within striking distance by scoring 10 of the Bucs’ 12 points in the first eight minutes on the way to leading all scorers with 26 points that included four three-point bombs and eight from the charity stripe.
Revolinski was all over the court all through the game for every second of every minute until the buzzer sending the Bucs to the regional final on Friday.
The first lead for the Bucs came at 5:10 of the second quarter when junior Will Morris knocked down a bucket and Revolinski extended the lead with a nothing-but-net shot from beyond the arc.
The Bucs scored 17 unanswered points in the quarter behind Pearson’s tenaciously scripted defense and took a 29-23 lead at the half.
Marengo bounced back in the third and grabbed a 32-31 lead at 4:53 before senior Eric Munoz took the lead back with three of his 17 points for the evening. The quarter ended with the Bucs on top 41-37.
With senior Deante Barnes in foul trouble throughout the evening, the Bucs turned to Revolinski, Munoz, and their strong supporting cast of underclassmen to seal the deal in a game that went back and forth until junior Austin Brockmann scored at 3:49 for a 49-47 lead that built through the rest of the quarter on the way to a convincing margin of victory.
Junior Xavier Dent added eight points with aggressive play under the boards at both ends.
Barnes finished with six points as the scoring was completed by juniors Morris (six), Brockmann (four), and Horton (two).
Belvidere will met the winner of Wednesday’s other semi-final game between fifth-seeded Genoa-Kingston and third-seeded Woodstock on Friday, March 4 at Woodstock High School. Tip-off began at 7 p.m. Results from the game will come in a later BDR edition.