Boys basketball: Hoffman’s pressure rattles Schaumburg
Hoffman Estates had Schaumburg playing Friday night like they were on ice.
Hoffman Estates skated over their home court, forcing 25 Saxons turnovers as the Hawks stunned Schaumburg, 57-45.
“That’s a really good team we beat right there,” Hoffman Estates coach Peter McBride said. “And it took a lot of work and preparation. We really made an effort to play with high pressure and a pace we were comfortable with because they pose a size difference with us and matchup difficulties.”
But despite not having a starter taller than 6-foot-2, the Hawks used their quickness and speed to take away the Schaumburg passing lanes to force so many turnovers.
“They run so many good things to get (6-8 Zion) Young the basketball under the rim,” McBride said. “Knowing that we would have size disadvantage, we tried to overwhelm with pressure.”
The Hawks countered Young on the block with their only 6-2 player. Fortunately for Hoffman, it was Nate Cleveland, who is a University of Minnesota committed linebacker, but a three-year varsity starter on the basketball court.
Cleveland used his physicality to keep Young from completely exploiting the Hawks defense. And when the Saxons did try it get the ball inside, Hoffman used a combination of Joey Hernandez, Chris Mobley, Torrey Baskin and Daiquan Daniels to steal passes inside.
“We were just flying around,” said Cleveland, who finished with 9 points.
“We have a unique style and we use all of our athletic abilities the best we can. We are so diverse here at Hoffman and we are used to being different for every other school.”
While the defense was putting the clamps on a Schaumburg offense that scored 110 points on Tuesday, Daniels led the charge for Hoffman on the offensive end. The 6-foot senior guard scored 26 points, including 12-of-15 from the free-throw line.
“We brought the pressure today,” Daniels said. “We came out with some high energy tonight. We do have a pretty unique style and we like to play fast. That’s what coach teaches us.”
Hoffman used that speed to jump out to a 12-8 lead after one quarter. Schaumburg (6-2, 0-2) then cut the lead to 17-15 early in the second quarter on an offensive rebound and basket by Young (16 points, 11 rebounds).
Hoffman then began to pull away. The Hawks scored the next seven points on their way to an 11-2 run to lead 26-17 and were able to take a 28-19 advantage at the half.
Schaumburg came out in the third quarter with some extra energy. The Saxons hit a pair of baskets and made it 28-23 on another putback by Young.
But that’s as close as the Saxons would get.
Hoffman went another surge thanks to some hot shooting by Baskin, who would score 9 of his 11 points in the third quarter. Baskin’s three late in period put the Hawks up 41-29 after three quarters.
Schaumburg did get the lead within seven twice, the last time at 43-36 with 6:35 to play on yet another putback by Young. But some deft ballhandling by Hoffman and some key free-throw shooting down the stretch put the game away for the Hawks.
McBride said that his Hawks (6-2, 1-1), which lost to unbeaten Hersey on a last-second shot in overtime on Tuesday, was able to use that loss as motivation.
“Tuesday was an absolute heartbreaker,” McBride said. “But it was a really high-level basketball game and we feel it prepared us for a game like this. The league is so good. There are no nights off in the MSL West and we are grateful for any win we can get.”
Jordan Tunis added 12 points for Schaumburg, which will have a week off before they play at MSL leader Fremd next Friday.
“They did a great job of turning us over,” Schaumburg coach Jason Tucker said. “We did not play tough tonight. We just weren’t ready and that’s on me. We weren’t veering to get open and we weren’t doing things that we were supposed to do tonight.”