3-time NUIC West champs battle 2-time defending NUIC North boys basketball champs

It sounded like the build up to a heavyweight title fight in boxing.

Scales Mound’s starting lineup Wednesday was introduced by the PA announcer as the “three-time defending NUIC West champions.” Pecatonica as the “two-time defending NUIC North champs.”

Both programs have had their three winningest seasons the past three full years (plus a strong COVID year) and have a chance at their greatest season this year.

“We see them at the top and we’re at the top on our side,” said Scales Mound’s All-State guard Thomas Hereau. “We always want to beat each other. It’s an awesome feeling to play against a team that’s just as good as us. That’s the kind of competition you want at this time of the year.”

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Pecatonica’s 70-54 blowout home win gives Pec (3-0) a chance to be ranked No. 1 in Class 1A when the initial Associated Press poll of the season comes out next week. Scales Mound (now 6-1) returns three starters from last year’s state runner-up team.

That’s the big difference between the two programs. While Pecatonica's 93-26 record since 2020 isn’t that far off from Scales Mound’s 111-23 mark and Pec was ranked as high as No. 2 last year, Scales Mound finished third and second in the state the last two years. Pec won two regional titles — big accomplishments for a school that had won one regional in the previous 25 years — but not nearly as big as what Scales Mound has done.

“We’re trying to do what they did the last two years,” said junior guard Cooper Hoffman, who led Pecatonica with 27 points.

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Both teams looked like state-caliber squads in a topsy-turvy first half that featured 12 lead changes and ended with Pecatonica on top 33-30. But poor shooting caught up to Scales Mound in the third quarter when the Hornets. who were only 11-for-31 from the field in the first half, suddenly couldn’t make a free throw, either. They were 4-for-13 from the line in the third quarter and Pecatonia extended its lead to 49-41.

Cooper then scored eight points in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter as Pec expanded its lead to 59-45. The Hornets never got closer than nine points again.

“Defensively we started rolling and offensively we started knocking down shots,” Hoffman said. “We settled down. All the hype surrounding the game, we let that go by after the first quarter and we started getting it on.”

Brody Black added 12 points for Pecatonica and four other players scored between eight and nine points.

“It’s a game in early December, but it feels like a game you would play in February or March,” Black said. “It’s great to have this kind of atmosphere this early in the year to give everyone the experience of playing in a big game.”

Hereau (20 points) and Evan Cogan (12) led the Hornets, who split with Pec last year but play only once this season.

“Each program has mutual respect for each other,” Scales Mound coach Erik Kudronowicz said. “We want to play the best and these are probably the two best teams in Class 1A in northern Illinois.

“There’s not any grudges or anything like that. They want to push their program to succeed and get to the spot where we’ve been the last couple of years and we want to continue to do the things we have done to build our program to where it is and keep it there.”

Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Pecatonica, Scales Mound stage latest chapter in friendly rivalry