After suffering a leg injury in the second half of a Jan. 6 win over Sandburg, Homewood-Flossmoor’s Darrius Hawkins Jr. was forced to spend some time on the sidelines.
The sophomore guard missed two games, including a Jan. 10 loss to Thornton. But he looked at the time off as a blessing in disguise. It was an opportunity to learn more about his teammates.
“It was great,” Hawkins said. “Me sitting out helped bring a lot out of the players who were sitting on the bench for a while. We need those guys to step up in the long run. It was great for me to sit there and see things from a different perspective.
“But I’m back and I’m ready to go.”
Hawkins, who returned to the lineup last week, was back in full force Monday night.
He scored 20 points and dished out four assists to lead the host Vikings to an 80-63 victory over Mount Carmel at the MLK The Dream Continues Invitational in Flossmoor.
Ethan Jackson scored 22 points to lead H-F (17-2). Marvin Douglas finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, while Danny Ruffin contributed 10 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Ronald Johnson led Mount Carmel (15-6) with 18 points. Logan Wessel scored 16 points, while Samuel Ogeto contributed 12 points and six rebounds and DK Heard added nine points, six rebounds and three blocked shots.
Hawkins, though, controlled the game from the start. After setting up his teammates early, he got his own offense going with eight points in the second quarter.
In his first year with the Vikings after transferring from Leo, Jackson confirmed that Hawkins is equally adept in both roles.
“It’s obviously my first year playing with him and it’s been amazing,” Jackson said. “He’s a young guard, but he really sets the pace and sets up the game for everybody on the floor.
“He works well with everyone and then he can score on his own, too.”
Hawkins is the only returnee who played a big role on last season’s senior-laden team. That’s made him a player his teammates look up to and lean on, even though he’s just a sophomore.
“I took a year to learn from the seniors last year,” Hawkins said. “Now, having to be more effective and more of a leader, it’s beneficial for my future, wanting to be a Division I point guard and knowing I’m going to have to do that at the next level.”
With that leadership standpoint in mind, Hawkins valued his time on the bench with the injury. He tried to take on a coach’s mentality and learn what the team could do better.
“Watching from the sidelines and seeing the pace of the games, it was very up and down,” he said. “We want to slow it down a bit and take our time. We can play with pace, but we don’t want to rush things. Get into our offense and take our time with things.”
H-F played with the perfect mix Monday night, using its speed to get Mount Carmel off-balance offensively but taking time to run its offense with Hawkins at the controls.
The Vikings led 15-6 after the first quarter and 35-22 at halftime and stayed in control all night.
H-F coach Brandin Brown is certainly glad to see his team — which was also without Ruffin for the Thornton loss — back at full strength.
But he also wanted to see certain things when Hawkins was out.
“Being a leader, it’s not easy to do as a sophomore,” Brown said. “But when he was out, we challenged him to stay engaged. He couldn’t help physically, but we still wanted to hear his voice.
“He definitely passed with flying colors.”
