Kenny Williams hits shot for the ages

Kenny Williams and Elgin High have been synonymous the last three years.

For football.

The senior has played varsity basketball for three seasons, but his legacy in Elgin sports lore was already chiseled in stone due to his exploits on the gridiron, where Williams rushed for over 2,500 yards and scored 25 touchdowns in three superb seasons.

It's a resume that landed him a scholarship to play football at Eastern Illinois University next fall.

During basketball season, however, the spotlight rightfully shines a bit brighter on Maroons guards Armani Williams and Jeremy Granger, a duo that combined for 42 points against Hononegah with five 3-pointers apiece.

Kenny Williams the basketball player isn't glamorous. On the basketball court he's more like a working stiff: setting screens, defending the other team's best player, diving on the floor for loose balls, getting rebounds.

He averages 4.9 points a game. Of the 7 points he scored Wednesday on the gimpy ankle he sprained in practice the day before, the final 2 are all Williams or anyone else will remember.

With all due respect to Williams' achievements on the football field, his single most memorable moment as an Elgin athlete may have come Wednesday night, when the 6-foot-1, 215-pound forward sank the game-winning fadeaway buzzer-beater from the lane that lifted the Maroons to a 79-77 upset of Hononegah in a Class 4A sectional semifinal at Jacobs.

The shot gave Elgin its most important victory since Sean Harrington's Maroons knocked off Naperville North in a 1998 Class AA supersectional to go downstate.

Williams was immediately swarmed by his delirious teammates and fell to the bottom of a team dogpile at midcourt. It was one pileup in which the running back didn't mind being at the bottom.

"This is going to be the last time I ever play competitive basketball, so this feels good," Kenny Williams said. "I'm glad I'm doing it with the guys I'm doing it with. This is my family, so I'll do whatever for my family.

"We all have roles on this team, and my role is not to shoot all the time."

That's exactly why the play worked.

With Granger and Armani bombing away from the outside, Hononegah extended its zone defense out to the perimeter, leaving Kenny open inside throughout the game, but especially late in the contest.

During a timeout with 28 seconds left, Elgin coach Mike Sitter told his team to get the ball to Kenny when he flashed to the lane.

"We said if they're in zone for that last shot, get the ball to Kenny and let him create," Sitter said. "We wanted him to attack the basket and dish, but nobody stepped up on him, so he finished."

Hononegah did come out in a 3-2 zone and Granger held the ball on the outside until 10 ticks remained. Then he cut right to the 3-point arc, drew a defender to him and passed the ball inside.

Kenny Williams did the rest, setting off Elgin High's most fevered celebration in a decade.

"It's a great reward for Kenny," Granger said. "He gives it everything he has and leaves it all on the floor. He's a hustle player. He plays great. And for him to hit the game-winning basket, hey, I gotta give it up for Kenny big time."

I couldn't say it better myself, Jeremy.