Boys Basketball: Williams Rises Up with Aunt Looking Down, Leads H-F Past Sandburg

The Skinny: Tim Williams set aside the emotionally draining experience of a personal loss and played at a high level in Homewood-Flossmoor’s 45-36 boys basketball victory over Sandburg on Friday night in Orland Park. Williams scored 13 of his game-high 15 points in the first half. He said he was inspired to play well in loving memory of his aunt, Ella Mae Robinson, who died on Jan. 6. He attended services in Michigan and rejoined his H-F teammates on Thursday. Williams made four of his first five shots and helped the Vikings build a 19-14 first-half lead. H-F extended the margin to 25-18 on a third-quarter drive by Rashaan Surles. Sandburg closed within 33-31 on a 3-pointer by Brian Dace with 2:30 left, but the Eagles were unable to get over the hump playing in front of a boisterous home crowd. One reason: H-F hit 18-of-22 free throws.

Patch’s MVP: Tim Williams, 6-7, senior, forward, Homewood-Flossmoor. Williams scored 13 of his game-high 15 points in the first half. He was saddled with foul trouble and sat out much of the third quarter.

Key Moments: H-F closed the first half on a 5-0 scoring run to break a 14-14 deadlock. Tyrone Sherman hit a 3-pointer and Williams dropped in a left-wing jumper with 7 seconds remaining. Sandburg did not score a 3-point basket until the fourth quarter. Nick Lehnerer scored three points on 1-for-7 shooting. H-F’s Sherman hounded him for much of the night. The Eagles were limited to 21.9 percent shooting (9-of-41).

Homewood-Flossmoor Leaders: Tim Williams (15 points, 5-of-7 shooting), Rashaan Surles (9 points, 7 in the fourth quarter, 5-of-6 free throws), Tyrone Sherman (8 points, 6 in the second quarter).

Sandburg Leaders: Brian Dace (13 points, 9 in the second half), Malek Harris (7 points, 4 rebounds), Joe Kuligoski (7 points, 6 in the first half).

Quotable I: “Oh, yeah, she was on my mind a little bit,” Williams said of his aunt’s death. “I kind of used that as motivation—you know, to play hard for her, play hard for myself, because I know she’s looking down.”

Quotable II: “The best thing from my standpoint is the things that we worked on in practice this week—we brought them to the game,” H-F coach Jim McLaughlin said. “We’ve struggled in that area for the last two months, that the practice is not equating to what we do on game-day. So, it was nice to see that happen. Our defense was extremely solid. We executed pretty well against their zone. But, by far, the biggest positive was the free throw line.”

Quotable III: “With this group, we don’t come into games being happy with being just right there,” Sandburg coach Todd Allen said. “We come into the game expecting to win this game. We’re disappointed that we didn’t. I thought we had a good opportunity. We just didn’t make enough shots. I thought defensively we did a good job. I thought we ran our stuff pretty well. But, as you know, basketball comes down to being able to make some shots. We just didn’t make enough shots.”

Team Records: Homewood-Flossmoor is 11-4 and 5-0 in the Southwest Suburban Blue Conference. Sandburg is 7-7 and 3-2.

What’s Next: Homewood-Flossmoor travels to Rockford Boylan for a 7 p.m. game on Saturday (Jan. 14). Sandburg faces Bloom at noon on Monday (Jan. 16) in the MLK Day of Hoops event at Joliet Central.