December 1, 2001 11:27 PM
Rocks roll over Rock Falls
By Terry Duckett, staff sports writer DIXON -- The last time Thom Sigel visited Dixon
High School's gym, it was as head coach of the Dukes' NCIC rivals from just up the highway
in Rock Falls.
On Saturday night, Sigel returned here for just the fifth game of his tenure as Rock
Island's coach, and celebrated his fourth win in those five games as the Rocks rolled to a
72-55 nonconference victory over the Dukes at Lancaster Gymnasium.
``It's nice coming back here. I get to see some familiar faces,'' said Sigel, whose
club drops Dixon to 2-4. ``Plus, we knew how to get to the school. That always helps.
``It really helped us with the scouting report for Dixon, because for nonconference
games, you usually don't know too much about your opponent. I knew with (Dukes' senior
Ben) Appenheimer out, that hurt their ability to score.''
Rock Island responded with intense man-to-man defensive pressure that forced Dixon into
33 turnovers. The Rocks, who hit 29-of-48 field-goal attempts, had 30 turnovers, but none
proved to be costly.
``We wanted to try and go up-tempo,'' Sigel said, ``and try to get some points out of
our defense and pick things up a bit. I thought we showed a lot of improvement on
defense.''
Offensively, David Wilson's fourth-quarter hot hand resulted in a team-high 18 points
on 9-of-12 shooting, topped only by Dixon star Brett Sandholm's 20-point night.
``Wilson didn't play that well (Friday night) against Alleman,'' said Sigel, referring
to his team's 53-52, Western Big 6-opening win over the Pioneers. ``It was good to see him
bounce back like he did.''
Brandin Smith supported Wilson with 15 points, with Bryan Madison tossing in 13 off the
Rocky bench. Howard Davis added nine points and Grant Snyder contributed seven rebounds
and three steals.
With Smith scoring 10 of his points in the opening quarter, Rock Island blazed to an
8-2 start, then weathered a pair of Dixon rally attempts and gradually built a 25-13 lead
after the first period.
The second quarter had more of a slow pace, with the Rocks building a 38-22 halftime
lead. The Dukes, fueled by Dustin Bock's double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds,
whittled that lead to 11 at 44-33 late in the third quarter, but that was as close as the
hosts got.
A 7-0 spurt enabled the Rocks to build on to their lead, a lead that grew to 52-36
entering the final eight minutes of play. Dixon again got to within 11 during the fourth
quarter, but still couldn't get back to within a single-digit deficit.
``Basically, we used the same game plan as we did last week, and focused on that in
practice,'' said Sigel. ``We moved the ball well, but we still made some mental errors
that we need to work on.''
RI sophs roll: Racing out to a 12-point lead after the first quarter, Rock
Island's sophomore squad never looked back as it improved to 5-0 with an 88-43 rout of
Dixon's sophomore cagers in Saturday's preliminary contest. Justin Sharp and Dail Rice
paced the Rocks with 16 and 15 points, respectively, followed by teammates Derrick Partman
(11 points) and Nick Fleming (10).
Copyright 2000, Moline Dispatch
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