Boys Basketball: Homewood-Flossmoor Swats Down Andrew in Sectional Semifinal

The Skinny: Tyrone Sherman mustered up just enough offense. Antonio Bishop and Tim Williams did much of the heavy lifting on defense. The three led Homewood-Flossmoor to a 36-22 victory over Andrew in a semifinal game at the Class 4A Lockport Sectional on Wednesday night. The game played out like a NFL matchup of the Ravens vs. the Steelers. It was a slugfest. Four players scored in the first half, but only three of them made field goals. Sherman, H-F’s senior point guard, led all scorers with 17 points. Bishop and Williams combined to shut out Andrew’s Jubril Adekoya in the first half. Adekoya finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds.

Patch’s MVP: Tyrone Sherman, 5-10 senior guard, Homewood-Flossmoor. Sherman made 7-of-11 shots and 3-of-4 free throws en route to scoring a game-high 17 points. He also directed the Vikings’ offense and doubled-down in the post on Andrew’s big man, Jubril Adekoya.

Key Moments: Homewood-Flossmoor used man-to-man and zone looks to confuse Andrew in the early going and push the T-Bolts out away from the basket. Andrew went nearly 10 minutes without scoring. Still, H-F’s lead went from 7-0 to 7-6 after Jawad Adekoya hit a 3-pointer from out top in the second quarter. The 3-ball was a rarity for the T-Bolts on a night when they hit 5-of-42 shots (11.9 percent) and went without scoring a single field goal in two of the four quarters (the first and fourth quarters). H-F used its big front line to block nine shots in the first half and altered many more. The Vikings were unable to pull away until late because they were 12-of-29 from the free throw line (41.3 percent). Andrew, down 20-18, had two shots to tie the score in the fourth quarter. Jubril Adekoya misfired on a baseline jumper. Tyler Hook snared the rebound but couldn’t convert on a putback attempt.

Andrew Leaders: Jubril Adekoya (14 points, 16 rebounds), Jawad Adekoya (5 points, 6 rebounds), Tyler Hook (3 points, 4 rebounds).

Homewood-Flossmoor Leaders: Tyrone Sherman (17 points, 7-of-11 shooting), Antonio Bishop (7 points, 2 rebounds), Willie Lipsey (5 points, all free throws), Tim Williams (3 points, 7 rebounds, 7 blocked shots).

Quotable I: “Actually, I did (begin to wonder if anybody was ever going to score),” Homewood-Flossmoor’s Tyrone Sherman said. “In the beginning of the first quarter, I thought we had the greatest defense in the world. We shut them out (H-F led 5-0). But we missed a couple of easy buckets to boost the lead even more).”

Quotable II: “We had great energy in practice Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and that’s really a credit to our second group,” Homewood-Flossmoor coach Jim McLaughlin said. “The guys that didn’t play in the game—I think we played nine today—the bottom six guys just busted their tails the last couple of days and really made the first group understand how we had to attack this group in order to win.”

Team Records: Homewood-Flossmoor is 22-7. Andrew finishes the best season in T-Bolts boys basketball history at 24-3.

What’s Next: Homewood-Flossmoor moves on to face Bloom Township at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the championship game of the Class 4A Lockport Sectional. Bloom topped Thornton 44-24 on Tuesday night. The Blazing Trojans defeated H-F twice during the regular season, once in overtime.