Hononegah girls clinch outright NIC-10 basketball championship

BELVIDERE, Ill. — Hononegah’s girls basketball team clinched the NIC-10 championship outright Monday night, knocking off host Belvidere 53-22 to maintain a three-game lead over Rockford Boylan with just two games left in the regular season.

The win also hiked Hononegah’s overall conference win-streak to 54. The Indians are 25-4 overall, bouncing back from a non-conference loss at Hersey on Saturday.

The Indians got off to a slow start, leading only 9-4 after the first quarter, but they tacked on 18 points in the second while the Bucs needed the next three quarters to score 18 points.

Sophomore Jordan Dimke led Hononegah with 17 points. Allyson Niedfeldt tacked on 12, Danielle Franz eight and Olivia Robinson seven.

The Indians travel back to Belvidere Tuesday to play Belvidere North. They wind up NIC-10 action Thursday at Rockford Jefferson.

• BIG FOOT 50, JEFFERSON 47: The Chiefs survived the absence of leading scorer Hudson Torrez and received a balanced effort from their lineup to down the Eagles in a Rock Valley Conference crossover on Monday night.

Big Foot (9-8, 5-5 Rock Valley Rock) held a slim 27-24 lead at halftime behind Jack Nelson’s two treys and two-pointer along with 10 points from the free-throw line.

Jefferson (11-6, 8-2), which leads the Rock Valley’s Valley Division, kept pace with Tyler Schroedl’s eight points in the second half as the senior finished with 18 total. But the Chiefs continued to get shots from the charity stripe, scoring 11 points from there after halftime, and stayed ahead for the win.

Jayden Paul had eight of his 14 points in the second half while Nelson finished with 13 and Dakota Nordmeyer contributed 10.

• BOXSCORE:

HONONEGAH 53, BELVIDERE 22

Hononegah 9 18 13 13 — 53

Belvidere 4 p4 9 5 — 22

HONONEGAH (fg ft-fta pts) — Johnston 2 0-0 5, Simpson 1 0-0 2, Robinson 2 1-4 7, Franz 3 0-1 8, Niedfeldt 3 4-6 12, Dimke 8 0-2 17, Pierson 1 0-0 2. Totals: 20 5-13 53.

BELVIDERE (fg ft-fta pts) — Lebeau 2 1-1 5, Pierson 4 0-0 8, Sternquist 1 3-4 5, Brauder 2 0-0 4. Totals: 9 4-5 22.

3-pt. Goals: Hononegah 8 (Robinson 2, Franz 2, Niedlfedt 2, Johnston, Dimke), Belv 0. Fouled out: none. Total fouls: Hono 11, Belv 11.