H-F tackles Stevenson for a loss
What has been a epic battle on the football field over the last couple of seasons moved over to the hardcourt for the holidays.
Stevenson was put to the test against an up-and-coming Homewood-Floosmoor boys basketball team in the semifinals of the Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic on Tuesday.
The Patriots struggled through so rough shooting shooting and more than its usual share of turnovers. Still, Stevenson was in it to the final few minutes before Homewood-Floosmoor prevailed 55-51 on Tuesday night.
Stevenson (8-3) will wrap up the tourney in the third-place game, against the loser of Maine South and Crespi Carmelite (Calif.) at 7 p.m. Wednesday, while Homewood-Floosmoor (7-2) will be in the title game at 8:30 p.m.
Justin Smith led the Patriots with another big game — 17 points, 20 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Rodney Herenton had 11 of his 13 points in the final quarter and Ryuji Aoki chipped in for the Patriots with 10.
In that final quarter, Stevenson found itself trailing 33-26 to start the final eight minutes. But the Patriots chipped away at the Vikings' lead, cutting it down to 5 points on several occasions before Herenton dropped in the Patriots' first trey of the game, making it 46-43 in favor of H-F with 1:35 left.
“When you get down in the fourth quarter, you have to be assertive and aggressive,” Herenton said. “Hats off to (Homewood-Floosmoor) for making free throws down the stretch. It was an all-out game towards the end. I got one (three), but we definitely struggled from the 3 this game. It's something that we will work on in the future. It's not characteristic of us.”
The Vikings made 9 of 10 free throws the rest of the way to hold on to protect their lead.
Kendric Pryor, who will play football at Wisconsin, led the Vikings with a game-high 18 points, and Elijah McCreary added 11 points off the bench.
Homewood-Floosmoor was helped by its bench, which got 28 points from four players.
“This group expects to win every game they play,” Homewood-Floosmoor coach Ray Condotti said. “It's a big factor why we're having success right now. We had a good gameplan in place and played hard, then usually good things happen. We did talk about that the bench would be important and we sat back on defense to close them out.”
In the opening quarter the game was tied 8-8. But in the second quarter, the Vikings hit 5 straight shots and went on an 11-1 run to take a 19-9 lead with 4:38 left before the half. Stevenson closed the gap a bit and trailed 21-15 at the break.
Behind Smith scoring 5 points and Willie Herenton's jump shot, the Patriots made it 26-22 with 2:16 remaining in the third quarter.
Homewood-Floosmoor scored 7 straight points as Pryor took a rebound and went the length of the floor to make it 33-22 with 1:56 left in the period, but Stevenson still found itself down by 7 entering the fourth.
The Patriots had an off night shooting the basketball, ending up at about 30 percent from the field.
“(Homewood-Floosmoor) was a good team and spread us out a little bit,” Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose said. “We couldn't seem to get loose balls. We struggled a little bit and they pressured us a bit. We've go to get better and work on it.”