ROCKTON—Hononegah boys basketball head coach Tom Schmidt said that every time his squad gave Rockford East a small window, the E-Rabs would respond in a big moment with a basket.
The Indians miss a defensive rotation? East hit a jumper. Hononegah gets turned around because of a good screen? The E-Rabs end the possession with a nice finish at the rim.
Those small openings blew wide open in overtime as East scored the first 12 points on its way to a 63-52 win on Wednesday night.
“You have to tip your cap to East, they played well tonight,” Schmidt said. “(Sterling) Horade and (Johntarion Leach) are very good players, and we had to pay a lot of attention to Horade. That opens up a lot of other things for some of their role players. When they were open down the stretch, they didn't miss.”
Hononegah (8-15, 5-8 NIC-10) missed a shot underneath the rim to start the extra period and Marquis Goldsmith, who finished with 18 points, was open for a quick layup. East (6-20, 4-10) stole the ball on the ensuing possession and Hoarde sank two free throws after being fouled.
The Indians were called for a travel on their next offensive set and Leach hit two free throws to make it 57-51 with two and a half minutes left.
“It was more on us,” said senior Cole Warren, who finished with 21 points. “We just weren’t really intense out there. We didn’t bring it tonight, and that’s why they were driving by us. I think we thought we could come into this game and just kind of limp around and go out there and win it real easy. And then they took it to us.”
Completely deflated from the hot start from the E-Rabs, Hononegah quickly fell into a 63-52 deficit as it was outscored 14-1 in the final quarter.
East had surged ahead for a 45-38 lead in the fourth quarter before the Indians fought their way back into it. Warren and senior Darian Tholin each hit a three and Warren scored another trey and two free throws as the two played toa 49-49 tie.
With just under a minute left in the fourth, Warren took a pass from senior Isaiah Houi and fought through several defenders at the rim to put Hononegah in the lead.
“Cole's a guy that when shots aren't falling for some guys, he does have the confidence in himself to try and make a play,” Schmidt said. “He did a great job around the basket for us tonight.”
But as they had all night, East answered and Goldsmith quickly shredded Honongeah’s defense for an easy layup. With just seconds remaining, a miscommunication on the Indians’ final possession sent a pass out of bounds and the game went to OT.
East held a 13-5 lead after the first quarter before junior Brayden Olson scored 11 points, including three treys, to give Hononegah a 19-17 lead.
“Brayden did a fantastic job for us,” Schmidt said. “He played with a lot of confidence tonight. If we can get everybody to care about it as much as he does, we're going to see some positive results.”
The two teams played close with no one leading by more than five points until the E-Rabs’ run in the fourth.
Beside some defensive issues, Hononegah was hot-and-cold shooting. Great offensive runs would seemingly be erased by dry spells.
Warren and Schmidt both cited the lack of energy as a reason for the poor performance in overtime.
“You're gonna go through stretches where shots aren't falling,” Schmidt said. “We can't let that affect our passing, our defensive awareness and our body language. We talked a lot about staying positive.”
Olson was the only Hononegah player besides Warren to finish in double-figures with 13 points. Horade paced East with 22 points and Leach added 18.
Adding on to the frustration is the fact that the Indians have lost six of their last seven games.
“That’s all it is, more energy,” Warren said. “We need someone to bring that. We need to come ready to play every game, because that's just not what we're doing right now.”
Hononegah will next host Rockford Boylan (9-15, 4-9) on Friday at 7 p.m.
• BOXSCORE:
ROCKFORD EAST 63, HONONEGAH 52 (OT)
East 13 9 13 16 14— 63
Hononegah 5 17 14 15 1— 52
ROCKFORD EAST (fg ft-fta pts) — Casson 1 1-2 3, Robinson 1 0-0 2, Campos-Watkins 1 0-2 2, Leach 5 5-6 18, Goodsmith 9 2-4 18, Horade 8 4-6 22. Totals: 24 12-20 65.
HONONEGAH (fg ft-fta pts) — Freedlund 1 1-3 3, Houi 1 2-4 4, Claudy 2 2-2 6, Warren 7 5-5 21, Olson 5 0-0 13, Tholin 1 1-2 4, Hart 0 1-2 1. Totals: 17 12-18 52.
3-pt. Goals: East 5 (Leach 3, Horade 2), Hono 6 (Olson 3, Warren 2, Tholin). Fouled out: Horade. Total fouls: East 16, Hono 19.
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