ROCKTON — Hononegah’s fans were eager to chant “MVP” when Indian senior David Brown powered past conference rival Boylan Saturday.
They had to wait until the fourth quarter, but the crowd finally got its wish.
After Boylan held Brown to just one point through the first three quarters, the defending NIC-10 MVP scored eight points in the fourth to help lead Hononegah to a 44-30 home win against the Titans.
“Obviously he struggled offensively,” Hononegah coach Mike Miller said. “But David made a lot of plays late. A great player knows how to make the plays when it counts.”
After one weekend of conference games, Hononegah (5-1, 1-1 NIC-10) and Boylan (5-1, 1-1) are in a four-way tie for third place in the conference with Jefferson and Harlem. Auburn and Freeport are in first with 2-0 conference records.
With Boylan shutting down all-state guard Brown, the score was tight for the first three quarters. Everything changed in the fourth when Hononegah forced four Boylan turnovers, got eight points from Brown and outscored the Titans 16-1 to close the game.
“When your star player is being shut down, your other players have to step up, and I think we all did an amazing job,” said Hononegah forward Dustin Meier, who led the Indians with 12 points and eight rebounds.
The first half was full of runs for both teams. Hononegah outscored Boylan 8-0 to start the game, but Boylan followed with 12-2 run of its own and took its first lead, 14-13, with 3:10 left in the first half on a Chris Ogilby layup. But the Indians ended the first half with another 8-0 run and led 21-14 at halftime.
Boylan dominated the third quarter by hitting four 3-pointers — one apiece from Michael Morman, Shane Zackery, Kieran Jansen and Chris Miller — and the Titans had a one-point lead (29-28) heading into the fourth. But the Titans couldn’t keep the momentum, as they went 0-for-11 in fourth-quarter field goals at the same time Brown finally started scoring.
“Defensively, we played more like I’m accustomed to us playing,” said Miller, whose team lost its conference opener 64-48 at Jefferson on Friday. “(Friday) I was very disappointed with that.”
Mario Donaldson added 11 points for the Indians. Armani Flannigan led Boylan with nine points and 12 rebounds, while Zackery and Steve Thomas did most of the defensive damage against Brown.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen that type of defense on me, because every time I touched the ball they were on me,” Brown said. “But nothing was going to keep me down.”
- Emily Tropp, rrstar.com
