The Taylorville Tornadoes shocked the Rochester Rockets with a 40-37 win as Malique Pearse hit a half-court shot at the buzzer after stealing the ball to give the Tornadoes a win in the Regional Semi-Finals. Leroy Kleimola and Blake Heimsness were on the call. 

The Taylorville Tornadoes trailed most of the game but would claw their way back in every time they were down, even coming back from being down by 8 points at one point.  Taylorville led 4-0 but Rochester came storming back to take a 10-4 lead at the end of the first.  This would be a story throughout most of the game as Taylorville would lead in the first four minutes of a quarter, and Rochester would pour it on in the second portion of the quarter. 

At halftime, Taylorville trailed by 4, 21-17. During halftime Coach Ryan Brown kept his team in the locker room for the entire ten minutes.  Coach Brown said his team needed a much-deserved breather.  During the third, Taylorville came pushing back hard again coming out of the half on a little run but it would be Rochester getting the upper hand nursing a 33-27 lead at the end of the third.  

Taylorville would outscore Rochester 13-4 in the fourth quarter including the three from Malique Pearse who stole the ball away from Khordell Gregory and took one dribble before putting up the half-court shot that bounced off the backboard and went right in as the Taylorville players stormed the court. 

Clark Durbin finished the game with 4 points, Drake Howard finished with 11, Blake Ladage finished with 8, and Baron Odam finished with 8 but at least 10 blocks as he was phenomenal on defense for Taylorville.  Malique finished with 9 including the all-important three, and the only three Taylorville hit all night.  He was named the Nicole Patrick Country Financial Agent Player of the game. 

Rochester's Eli Cox finished with 12 points and Khordell Gregory finished with 11. 

                         1      2      3     4      F

Rochester      10     11   12    4     37    

Taylorville        4     13  10    13    40

Coach Brown says it was the defense that carried the team this evening. 

Taylorville (15-17) faces Lincoln (22-10) in Springfield on Friday at 7 PM. Lincoln defeated Southeast (Springfield) 64-20. Earlier this season The Railsplitters beat Taylorville 40-30 in Lincoln. Catch all the action on WTIM, Your Information Station The Big 870 AM and 96.1 FM in Taylorville.