Hall, Thornton give Hoffman Estates a feel-good homecoming
Brandon Hall and Jorden Thornton made sure that Hoffman Estates' rough start in boys basketball came to end Saturday.
The pair combined for 41 of their team's points as the host Hawks held on to beat Prospect 53-50.
The win improved Hoffman Estates to 2-5 on the season and left coach Luke Yanule pleased with his team's resiliency.
"I have said all along that this team has tremendous fight," Yanule said. "Every game we have played has been close except one. We thought we were the best 1-5 team around."
Thornton and his Hoffman Estates teammates must have clicked their heels together three times before their home opener. Thornton and the Hawks had not been a good shooting team while playing their first 6 games of the season away from the comforts of their own gym.
Thornton was on fire in the first half. The senior nailed 7-of-11 field goals in the first half. He hit 6 in a row during that span, including three 3-pointers, one of which was past NBA range as Hoffman built a 34-29 lead at the half.
"The excitement of being home helped us," said Thornton, who finished with 21 points. "I felt that losing to Barrington on Friday gave us some extra energy coming out here. Brandon (Hall) made some big free throws and we handled the pressure well."
Prospect (2-3) was coming off a last-second win over Hersey on Friday and the Knights had plenty of energy as well. Prospect went to the boards hard and finished with a huge rebounding edge, 32 to 19.
With those second chances and the play of Frankie Mack, who had 15 points and 8 rebounds, and Matt Szuba, who had 12 points and 13 rebounds, the Knights rallied in the second half. With that pair leading the way, the Knights were able to take a 39-35 lead with 3:42 left in the third quarter on a 3 by Szuba.
"We made some good adjustments at halftime," Prospect coach John Camardella said. "But what it comes down to is runs that we will get on 3 or 4 possessions that we won't score. And that has hurt us."
Those possessions came for Prospect in the fourth quarter with Knights leading 47-46 on a 3-pointer by Antonio Gardner with 3:25 to play. Prospect turned the ball over on it next 3 possession and Hoffman Estates jumped at the opportunity.
Thornton made a nice feed to Hall, who had an easy layup to put the Hawks up. Thornton then followed with a driving layup, and he squeezed past a Prospect defender as Hoffman Estates led 50-47.
Mack hit a free throw and Hall hit a pair as Hoffman led 52-48 with 28.8 seconds left. Grant Whitebloom's basket closed the gap for Prospect with 18.6 second left.
"Free throws are just things we work on every day," said Hall, who finished with 20 points and 6 rebounds. "It just comes down to executing when it matters."
Hall made it 53-50 with 9.5 seconds to play. Hoffman, which had fouls to give, used two of them, leaving Prospect 1.5 seconds left. Gardner took an inbounds pass, but his shot hit the front of the rim.
The teams combined for 13 three-pointers with Thornton and Hall each knocking down 3 while Mack and Szuba each had 2.
Lamont McIntosh and Marshall Davis each had 5 points for Hoffman while Gardner had 7 points and Whitebloom had 6 points for Prospect.
"I think our ability to lock up defensively and our ability to share the ball, was the difference for us," Yanule said. "There were some tough situations, but we came through tonight."