One defensive play that stood out for Homewood-Flossmoor in Thursday night’s Class 4A Eisenhower Sectional final against Marist came courtesy of Karli Seay.
It stood out because it ended the first half.
It was also the beginning of the end for Marist.
The 5-foot-6 junior guard’s steal and court-length dash to the basket took away the RedHawks’ final chance to tie and sent H-F on its way to a 60-42 victory.
The Vikings (24-3) will play Young in Monday’s Mother McAuley Supersectional, hoping to earn a return trip to the state finals.
Nadia Green stood out numbers-wise for H-F with 17 points. Lindzy Cox added 12 points, Seay had 11 points and Eva Rubin grabbed eight rebounds.
Marist (24-9) was led by Tehya Fortune (9 points), Julia Ruzevich (8 points) and Claire Austin (7 points, 9 rebounds).
“I was just trying to end the half with some energy,” Seay said of her turning-point effort. “We wanted to play some defense and get the ball.”
At the same time, Marist was trying to end the first half with a game-tying basket. The RedHawks played brilliantly and led 22-20 with 4:38 left until halftime, but then went into a drought.
Still, they trailed just 24-22 with one possession remaining. A basket would have sent both teams tied going into intermission.
It didn’t come. And it would never be even again.
Marist didn’t score again until 4:28 remained in the third quarter. By then, H-F had motored to a 31-22 advantage. The Vikings got it to double digits soon after, and it stayed there save for a brief time early in the fourth quarter.
H-F’s man-to-man defense was, in a word, suffocating.
“The kids decided to work hard and they decided to play some defense,” H-F coach Tony Smith said. “They took it personal. We knew early on we were going to have trouble scoring, so we told them, ‘Defense wins (titles).’ And that’s what we’re trying to get.”
With the defense came offense. And if there was one thing that H-F did fairly to very well throughout the game, it was attacking the basket.
Green, for one, was fearless getting to the paint and sending up floaters. She didn’t always get the basket, but she did get to the line five times. She missed her first free throw, but made the next nine.
“We were stronger so we wanted to attack the rim as much as possible,” Green said. “This was a big game, and we were very excited.”
For Marist, attacking the rim became a very difficult proposition with the 6-foot-5 Rubin swatting away or detouring RedHawk layups. And while Austin and Fortune hit for 3-pointers early on, they weren’t falling later.
“The pressure on us … we tried preparing for it and I thought we handled it well in the first half,” Austin said. “In the second half we kind of crashed. That’s not what we wanted, but that’s what happened.
“We really needed to make our short shots and free throws. I think we did OK on free throws, but our short shots were not good. They’re good, but I think that we beat ourselves.”
Twitter @tbaranek
