ROCKFORD—It might be tempting to say that the McHenry boys basketball team closed the book on a Cinderella story Wednesday night after it eliminated Hononegah in the IHSA 4A sectional semifinals with a 58-53 victory.
The one problem with that comes in calling the Indians a “Cinderella” team.
Seventh-seeded Hononegah strung together upset victories over No. 5 Huntley and top-seeded Rockford Guilford, the NIC-10 champions that went undefeated in conference play and had beaten the Indians by 20 points twice in the regular season, to earn a regional championship.
And once in the sectional semifinals, hosted by Rockford Guilford on the campus of Rock Valley College, the Indians didn’t just roll over.
They fought back again and again against the second-seeded Warriors, pulling within 55-53 late in the fourth quarter before McHenry (26-8) closed the game out both in the backcourt and from the free-throw line.
After all that, implying that Hononegah (13-17) shouldn’t have made it this far seems a bit far fetched.
“I really wish we could have gotten farther because I think we could have kept impressing people,” senior Cole Warren said. “(Head) coach (Tom) Schmidt has been telling us ‘Hey, nobody thinks we're going to win. Let's go and shock them.' We were just chasing that underdog feeling, and we executed that well up until now.”
McHenry’s offense had found its rhythm late in the third quarter after Caleb Jett’s trey broke a 36-36 tie. Hayden Stone scored at the rim and from the distance in the 14-2 run that put the Warriors up 50-38 halfway into the final frame.
Junior Cole Schmall ignited a surge from the Indians with his layup as seniors Landon Claudy, who also hit two from the free-throw line, and Darian Tholin each hit 3-pointers to help pull it to 53-50.
“(Our threes) weren’t working as well as the other two games, but we were still hitting at a high percentage,” Warren said. “That goes through all the reps we do in practice. It all led up to this game.”
Warren answered two free throws from Marko Visnjevac with a smooth trey that put Hononegah back behind by two points. McHenry committed a five-second violation on the ensuing possession, but Tholin, who paced Hononegah with 17 points and five threes, missed a 3-point shot from the right wing.
McHenry grabbed the rebound and hit a free-throw to build the lead up to three points. Hononegah threw the ball out of bounds on the next possession and the Warriors hit another pair of charity stripe shots to put the game out of reach.
“I’m proud of our guys for how we finished this season,” Schmidt said. “We fought until the end tonight. They made a decision after a tough loss in overtime against Rockford East (late in the season) on how we wanted the rest of the season to go. They decided they wanted to put everything they had into it and try, not just to win a regional championship, but see how far we could go in the postseason.”
Wednesday night was a tough defensive battle from the start as McHenry held a 9-7 lead after one quarter. Visnjevac, who led the Warriors with 23 points, scored nine points in the second to up the lead to 22-16 at halftime.
A pair of treys gave McHenry a 12-point lead out of intermission before Tholin and Claudy each hit a pair of 3-pointers to tie it up at 28.
Visnjevac scored five-straight points before Houi hit a trey and Warren scored two free throws to tie it back at 33. Visnjevac sank a three before James Schomburg answered with a trey.
The Indians finished with just three 2-pointers, the first not coming until the fourth quarter.
“McHenry did a great job taking away the paint,” Schmidt said. “Every time we got there, they collapsed on us with their length.”
While the Warriors put Hononegah through dry spells by forcing turnovers with its on-the-ball pressure, the Indians did a nice job responding with some steals of their own.
“We did a nice job in the 1-3-1 tonight,” Schmidt said. “It kept us in the game, for the most part. Once they started to stretch it out, where they were in more of a passive mode, we flipped it to man and did a good job with that as well.”
Warren finished with 13 points and Claudy had 14. Hononegah sank 14 3-pointers with Claudy providing four and Warren accounting for three. Jett ended with 13 for McHenry while Hayden Stone scored 10.
McHenry will next face top seeded Warren in the sectional finals on Friday.
Schmidt tipped his cap to his senior class, which battled through a COVID-19 freshman season and gave the Indians its first regional title since the 2019-20 season.
“It's a great group of seniors,” he said. “Nothing fazes them and each one of them brings a characteristic to the team that's very valuable. Obviously Isaiah and Cole get a lot of the notoriety and it's well deserved. But Darian really came on strong the last month of the season and did a fantastic job for us. Same thing with Landon.
“James was a fantastic leader for us all season long, leading by example and just being a fantastic teammate. Lucas Touvannas — once we shifted more to play in the 1-3-1 he did a great job at the top of that. His defensive effort and passion out there meant a lot to the team.”
• BOXSCORE:
MCHENRY 58, HONONEGAH 53
McHenry 9 13 19 17 — 58
Hononegah 7 9 20 17 — 53
MCHENRY (fg ft-fta pts) — Visnjevac 6 7-8 23, Stojich 1 0-0 2, Hurckes 1 0-0 2, Stone 3 2-2 10, Jett 5 1-2 13, Anwar 2 3-5 8. Totals: 17 13-17 58.
HONONEGAH (fg ft-fta pts) — Houi 1 0-0 3, Claudy 4 2-2 14, Warren 4 2-2 13, Schomburg 1 0-0 3, Schamll 1 0-0 2, Tholin 6 0-0 17. Totals: 17 5-6 53.
3-pt. Goals: MH 9 (Visnjevac 4, Stone 2, Jett 2, Anwar), Hono 14 (Tholin 5, Claudy 4, Warren 3, Houi, Schomburg). Fouled out: Tholin. Total fouls: MH 12, Hono 15.
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