ROCKFORD — Outside of Hononegah’s own locker room, no one seemed to give the seventh-seeded Indians any chance against NIC-10 champion and No. 1 seed Rockford Guilford in the IHSA 4A Rockford East Regional.
“Everybody was talking about Guilford getting a wake up call with their close win over East,” said Hononegah senior Cole Warren. “They didn't hardly notice we'd upset Huntley.”
Everybody seemed to be sleeping on Hononegah.
Everybody was wrong.
Darian Tholin tallied 18 points, Warren had 17 and Isaiah Houi and Landon Claudy had 10 apiece as the Indians (13-16, 8-10 NIC-10) pulled off a stunning 64-57 upset of favored Guilford for the regional title.
“To pick us, how many points would I have had to give you?” Hononegah head coach Tom Schmidt asked a reporter. “We lost to them by 20 twice this season.”
The Hononegah coach is big on putting the past behind, whether it’s a missed shot or a losing streak and instead focus on the next task at hand.
Friday, that clearly meant bringing their “A” game and sticking to it. They did convert a dozen 3-pointers and 14-of-20 free throws.
“We’ve been playing some of our best basketball down the stretch,” Schmidt said. “I give these guys credit. The season we’ve had some ups and downs and you go through a couple of losing streaks and it’s easy to start feeling sorry for yourselves. Our guys never did that. They stayed focused and kept working hard to get better.”
What helped the Indians more than anything Friday was their start. Tholin buried three 3-pointers and Warren another in the first quarter as they jumped out to a 19-11 lead.
“I don’t think anyone saw that coming,” Warren said. “I think the key was that we trusted each other and then we came out and started hitting shots. When we saw that we realized we could win this game. We believed it, but we needed to see it.”
Hononegah’s confidence never wavered, even when Guilford (26-5, 18-0 NIC-10) made a final push to within a basket in the fourth quarter.
The Vikings trailed 32-21 at halftime and 51-41 heading to the final eight minutes. Houi’s jumper with just under 6 minutes left gave Hononegah a 55-43 cushion, but Guilford turned up the intensity with its trapping defense and started forcing some turnovers, gradually closing the gap. A 7-0 run by the Vikings brought them within 59-57 with 1:15 left.
Instead of wilting, the Indians regrouped during a timeout. The Vikings fouled Tholin on a drive and he converted two free throws with 58 seconds left to make it 61-57.
Guilford’s Malachi Johnson had a 3-point try bounce out and Warren grabbed the rebound. He drew a foul with 40 seconds left and hit 1-of-2 free throws for a 62-57 lead.
The Vikings were suddenly cold, missing another shot and Cole Schmall snared the rebound. Caleb Hart went to the line this time, hitting 1-of-2 free throws with 21 seconds remaining to push it to 63-57.
Another Guilford miss was rebounded by Tholin and Hart again was 1-of-2 at the line with 10 seconds left for the final 64-57 margin. The dangerous Vikings didn’t score after pulling within two with 1:15 to play.
“In the fourth quarter, we tried to be patient on offense and Guilford did a great job down the stretch ramping up their defense,” Schmidt said. “They knew they had to do something because they were running out of time so they got more aggressive. They had that stretch where we had a couple of turnovers and they had a couple of and-ones to tighten it up, but we did a nice job of settling down. We hit enough free throws down the stretch and in the last minute or so we made them take some tough shots and we got the rebounds and that was kind of the difference.”
Cinco Gary and Branden Chatman each had 14 points to lead Guilford.
Houi said the victory also came down to confidence.
“We didn’t care about their record and being undefeated in conference,” he said. “We had to play our game. That’s a great team we played who can get up on you in a minute. So we definitely had to limit our mistakes and play with a lot of confidence.”
If anything was going to shake it, it would been having the lead trimmed to a mere basket. But the Indians prevailed.
“It was scary at times, but we knew we had to take care of the ball against their pressure,” Tholin said. “We have a lot of chemistry on this team and we’ve played together a long time. We knew we were the underdog, but we knew if we stuck together we could win. And it’s kind of cool being the underdog when you win.”
Well, the Indians better like it because they’ll clearly be in that role from now on. They’ll face No. 2-seeded McHenry at 7 p.m. Wednesday in a Rockford Guilford Sectional semifinal. The game will be played at Rock Valley College.
BOXSCORE:
HONONEGAH 64, GUILFORD 57
Hononegah;19;13;19;13;--;64
R. Guilford;11;10;20;16;--;57
HONONEGAH (fg ft-fta pts) – Houi 4 2-4 10, Claudy 3 2-2 10, Warren 5 3-4 17, Schmall 1 2-2 4, Olson 1 0-0 3, Tholin 5 3-4 18, Hart 0 2-4 2. Totals: 19 14-20 64.
ROCKFORD GUILFORD (fg ft-fta pts) – Chatman 5 4-4 14, Frye 3 1-2 8, Johnson 3 0-0 7, Jalil 3 1-3 7, Gary 4 6-7 14, Webster 1 0-0 3, Riley 2 0-2 4. Totals: 21 12-18 57.
3-pt. Goals: Hono 12 (Tholin 5, Warren 4, Claudy 2, Olson), RG 3 (Frye, Johnson, Webster. Fouled out: Jalil. Total fouls: Hono 17, RG 22.
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