ROCKFORD -- David Brown sat on the bench scowling in pain in the final minutes of the fourth quarter at Auburn Saturday.
The Hononegah senior had a bruised hip, four fouls, only four points and a sprained ankle that still wasn’t 100 percent.
And yet, when Hononegah coach Mike Miller turned to him for help, Brown never hesitated.
“I looked at him and said ‘How about if I put you back in and you win this for us?’” Miller said. “And he did it. He won it for us.”
Hononegah beat Auburn 47-42 in overtime after Brown scored the game-tying layup in the fourth quarter and then added four points in the extra period.
“He’s a real good player, even when he’s hurting, he’s just a real good player,” Hononegah junior Stanley Moore said about his teammate.
Auburn walked off the court stunned after owning as much as a 15-point lead halfway through the third quarter. The Indians, who never had the lead until overtime, handed Auburn (12-5, 7-1 NIC-10) its first conference loss.
Hononegah (17-3, 7-1), Jefferson (17-2, 7-1) and Auburn are tied for first place in the NIC-10 at the halfway point of the season.
“I just love our kids,” Miller said after the emotional overtime victory. “I will take them to battle anywhere, against anyone, and I know they wouldn’t disappoint me.”
In the only meeting of the regular season between the teams, Auburn sped out to a 6-0 lead in the opening minutes and used an 11-0 second-quarter run to take a 22-12 halftime lead.
Hononegah committed 13 turnovers in the first two quarters, while Auburn senior center Ayrryous Ford controlled the game with 14 points and four rebounds.
“They came out with a lot of energy,” said Brown, who saw limited playing time after falling hard on his hip after a layup five seconds into the second quarter. The NIC-10 MVP had four points and three fouls at halftime.
Auburn still owned a 10-point lead (34-24) heading into the fourth quarter, but the Knights collapsed in the last four minutes of regulation. Auburn committed seven turnovers and never got another field goal from Ford inside, which led to a 11-1 Hononegah run to close the fourth.
After limping off the bench with three minutes remaining, Brown finally tied the game at 39 apiece on a layup. His missed 3-pointer with one second remaining sent the game to OT.
“I think we just did a much better job of keeping Ford off the glass in the second half,” Miller said.
Auburn went 0 for 4 in overtime 3-pointers and 1 for 4 at the free-throw line. Meanwhile, Hononegah won the game on a layup by Chase Robinson, two buckets from Brown and ended it with a pair of free throws from Robinson with 14 seconds remaining.
“I knew we needed that win,” said Brown, who finished with 11 points. “I wasn’t going to let something like (an injury) stop me from getting what I wanted so bad.”
Moore also finished with 11 points, nine of which came in the second half. Ford scored 19 points, and Kashif Maxwell added three 3-pointers and 10 points.
-- Emily Tropp, RRSTAR.COM
