Royals Capture 2012 Little Ten
Tournament Title
Tournament Title
H-BR tops Somonauk for first championship since 2001 ...
| Northern Illinois Sports Beat http://www.northernillinoissportsbeat.com |
By Brian Hoxsey
Northern Illinois Sports Beat Contributor
SOMONAUK – For Hinckley-Big Rock head coach Bill Sambrookes the fourth time was
the charm.
In 2003, 2004, and 2008, Sambrookes' teams advanced to the Little Ten Conference
Boys Basketball Tournament championship game only to finish runners-up.
Not this year.
Top-seeded H-BR were the aggressors from the opening tip against No. 3 Somonauk in
the championship game of the 93rd annual Little Ten Conference Basketball Tournament.
The lightning quick Royals jumped out to a 13-2 lead after the opening eight minutes and
eventually captured their first title since 2001 and sixth overall with a convincing 58-39
victory over the Bobcats on Friday night.
H-BR, who starts five juniors, held the tournament hosts to 1-for-6 shooting while forcing
nine turnovers in the first quarter, with many of those miscues turned into transition
baskets for the champs at the other end.
Bernie Conley led the Royals with a game-high 16 points, four assists and a handful of
steals, while guardmate Jared Madden added 10 points and five rebounds. Senior Jacob
Krischel paced the Bobcats with a 10 point, 10 rebound double-double.
“This is my fourth time being in this championship game as a coach and had lost the
previous three, so this was very gratifying and it's a tribute to the kids playing hard,” said
H-BR coach Bill Sambrookes, whose club finished hitting 48-percent from the floor and
held a 27-21 advantage on the boards. “We didn't write goals down on the board at the
beginning of the season, but we believe if you have good prospects on how you play, the
results will take care of themselves and these guys understand that.”
Conley missed on his first five shots of the game, but slowly found the range including his
trey from the wing that gave his club a 24-9 lead with just under two minutes before
halftime.
“We knew they were going to come after us hard, we just tried to treat it like any other
game and we came out with the win,” Conley said. “I struggled shooting early, so I tried to
create for my teammates. They keep telling me to shoot it because they know I'm going
make them and they started going in for me at the end. We definitely wanted this one, we
didn't know if we'd get here, but we did and pulled out the victory. Everyone was ecstatic
in the locker room.”
H-BR lead 30-17 in the opening seconds of the second half after a free-throw line jumper
by Zach Michels. The Bobcats countered with inside hoops from Justin Fox and Jacob
Alstadt to cut it to a nine-point game. SHS senior Colin Stahl swished a triple from the wing
at the 3:25 mark to make it 32-24, but the Royals closed out the third on a 10-1 run with
layups from Michael Bayler, Madden and Conley for a 42-25 lead heading to the fourth.
(H-BR) exposed things we have to work on, they pressured us and we have to able to
hang on to the basketball,” said Somonauk coach Ron Hunt, whose club turned the ball
over 20 times in the game. “We have to make free throws and run our offense in the half
court. When we broke the press we then looked very nervous. The kids were jacked up
and I thought the after the first couple of minutes we'd get it out of our system and settle
in but it was a combination of Hinckley-Big Rock's speed and quick hands that gave us
problems all night.”
H-BR (19-7) closed out the contest by out-pointing the Bobcats 16-14 in the final period,
including eight points and two 3s from Conley, and raised the golden ball as the league
tournament champion.
“We want to win two key battles, out-rebound our opponent and have less turnovers,”
Sambrookes said. “If we do those two things we have a really good chance of winning the
game.”
As far as the play of Conley, Sambrookes spoke of his star junior with a huge smile on his
face.
“He's huge all the time. He came out because he was cramping up, he had played the
whole game,” said Sambrookes of Conley. “He is a gutty player, a true leader, he doesn't
have to be the star and he doesn't have an attitude. He is a pleasure to have. He is a
multi-sport athlete, but I like having him here right now.”
Hunt, while disappointed in the outcome, appreciates the position his club was in and now
says they will need to refocus their goals heading into the post season.
“We've got two weeks of the regular season left and three weeks from tonight they're
going to hand out another award in a regional championship plaque so that's where we
will set out sights now,” Hunt said. “Every time you get into a championship game it's
special, they don't come around very often. There were seven other conference teams
that wanted to be in this game and we were blessed to get here. Sometimes you win and
sometimes the other guy wins.”
The Royals will now look to add the LTC regular season title to their list of
accomplishments this season. H-BR is perfect in six league contests this season with a
visit to Serena (Feb. 10th) and a home game with Paw Paw in the conference finale on
February 17th.
Brian Hoxsey is a Northern Illinois Sports Beat contributor. He can be reached in care of
NISB at Northernillinoissportsbeat@yahoo.com. --- Talk about what's written on our
Message Boards!
Northern Illinois Sports Beat Contributor
SOMONAUK – For Hinckley-Big Rock head coach Bill Sambrookes the fourth time was
the charm.
In 2003, 2004, and 2008, Sambrookes' teams advanced to the Little Ten Conference
Boys Basketball Tournament championship game only to finish runners-up.
Not this year.
Top-seeded H-BR were the aggressors from the opening tip against No. 3 Somonauk in
the championship game of the 93rd annual Little Ten Conference Basketball Tournament.
The lightning quick Royals jumped out to a 13-2 lead after the opening eight minutes and
eventually captured their first title since 2001 and sixth overall with a convincing 58-39
victory over the Bobcats on Friday night.
H-BR, who starts five juniors, held the tournament hosts to 1-for-6 shooting while forcing
nine turnovers in the first quarter, with many of those miscues turned into transition
baskets for the champs at the other end.
Bernie Conley led the Royals with a game-high 16 points, four assists and a handful of
steals, while guardmate Jared Madden added 10 points and five rebounds. Senior Jacob
Krischel paced the Bobcats with a 10 point, 10 rebound double-double.
“This is my fourth time being in this championship game as a coach and had lost the
previous three, so this was very gratifying and it's a tribute to the kids playing hard,” said
H-BR coach Bill Sambrookes, whose club finished hitting 48-percent from the floor and
held a 27-21 advantage on the boards. “We didn't write goals down on the board at the
beginning of the season, but we believe if you have good prospects on how you play, the
results will take care of themselves and these guys understand that.”
Conley missed on his first five shots of the game, but slowly found the range including his
trey from the wing that gave his club a 24-9 lead with just under two minutes before
halftime.
“We knew they were going to come after us hard, we just tried to treat it like any other
game and we came out with the win,” Conley said. “I struggled shooting early, so I tried to
create for my teammates. They keep telling me to shoot it because they know I'm going
make them and they started going in for me at the end. We definitely wanted this one, we
didn't know if we'd get here, but we did and pulled out the victory. Everyone was ecstatic
in the locker room.”
H-BR lead 30-17 in the opening seconds of the second half after a free-throw line jumper
by Zach Michels. The Bobcats countered with inside hoops from Justin Fox and Jacob
Alstadt to cut it to a nine-point game. SHS senior Colin Stahl swished a triple from the wing
at the 3:25 mark to make it 32-24, but the Royals closed out the third on a 10-1 run with
layups from Michael Bayler, Madden and Conley for a 42-25 lead heading to the fourth.
(H-BR) exposed things we have to work on, they pressured us and we have to able to
hang on to the basketball,” said Somonauk coach Ron Hunt, whose club turned the ball
over 20 times in the game. “We have to make free throws and run our offense in the half
court. When we broke the press we then looked very nervous. The kids were jacked up
and I thought the after the first couple of minutes we'd get it out of our system and settle
in but it was a combination of Hinckley-Big Rock's speed and quick hands that gave us
problems all night.”
H-BR (19-7) closed out the contest by out-pointing the Bobcats 16-14 in the final period,
including eight points and two 3s from Conley, and raised the golden ball as the league
tournament champion.
“We want to win two key battles, out-rebound our opponent and have less turnovers,”
Sambrookes said. “If we do those two things we have a really good chance of winning the
game.”
As far as the play of Conley, Sambrookes spoke of his star junior with a huge smile on his
face.
“He's huge all the time. He came out because he was cramping up, he had played the
whole game,” said Sambrookes of Conley. “He is a gutty player, a true leader, he doesn't
have to be the star and he doesn't have an attitude. He is a pleasure to have. He is a
multi-sport athlete, but I like having him here right now.”
Hunt, while disappointed in the outcome, appreciates the position his club was in and now
says they will need to refocus their goals heading into the post season.
“We've got two weeks of the regular season left and three weeks from tonight they're
going to hand out another award in a regional championship plaque so that's where we
will set out sights now,” Hunt said. “Every time you get into a championship game it's
special, they don't come around very often. There were seven other conference teams
that wanted to be in this game and we were blessed to get here. Sometimes you win and
sometimes the other guy wins.”
The Royals will now look to add the LTC regular season title to their list of
accomplishments this season. H-BR is perfect in six league contests this season with a
visit to Serena (Feb. 10th) and a home game with Paw Paw in the conference finale on
February 17th.
Brian Hoxsey is a Northern Illinois Sports Beat contributor. He can be reached in care of
NISB at Northernillinoissportsbeat@yahoo.com. --- Talk about what's written on our
Message Boards!
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At Somonauk
Little 10 Conference Tny.
Championship Game
Hinckley-Big Rock 58,
Somonauk 39
Somonauk (39) – Colin
Stahl 1-6 0-0 3, Jacob
Krischel 4-5 1-2 10, John
Wathen 1-3 1-2 3, Justin
Fox 2-4 1-2 5, Jacob
Alstadt 3-5 1-2 7, Jacob
Morsch 2-5 0-0 4, Nick
Gudmunson 0-1 0-0 0,
Johnnie Stephens 2-6 1-2
5, Daniel Reiss 1-3 0-2 2,
David Grutza 0-0 0-0 0,
Matt Grutza 0-0 0-0 0, Eric
Thomas 0-0 0-0 0. Totals
16-38 5-12 39.
H-BR (58) – Bernie Conley
5-14 3-5 16, Jared Madden
5-9 0-3 10, Zach Michels 3-
6 3-4 9, Mitch Ruh 2-4 2-2
8, Mitchell Hemesath 3-4 1-
2 7, Michael Bayler 2-3 2-2
6, Andrew Klambauer 0-0
0-0 0, Billy Weissinger 0-0
0-0 0, Mac Carls 0-1 0-0 0,
Nick Gentry 1-2 0-0 2,
Colin Goodson 0-0 0-0 0, J.
D. Oeters 0-0 0-0 0. Totals
21-43 11-18 58.
Somo. (13-11) 2 13 10 14 – 39
H-BR (19-7) 13 15 14 16 – 58
3-point goals – Somonauk
2-11 (Stahl 1-5, Krischel 1-
1, Wathen 0-1, Morsch 0-1,
Stephens 0-3); H-BR 5-15
(Conley 3-9, Madden 0-2,
Ruh 2-4). Rebounds –
Somonauk 21 (Krischel
10); H-BR 27 (Hemesath
8). Assists – Somonauk 9
(Krischel 3); H-BR 14
(Conley 4). Steals –
Somonauk 5 (5 with 1
each); H-BR 15 (Conley 5).
Blocks – Somonauk 1
(Wathen); H-BR 1
(Madden). Turnovers –
Somonauk 20, H-BR 12.
Total fouls (fouled out) –
Somonauk 18 (Stahl); H-
BR 13 (none).
Little 10 Conference Tny.
Championship Game
Hinckley-Big Rock 58,
Somonauk 39
Somonauk (39) – Colin
Stahl 1-6 0-0 3, Jacob
Krischel 4-5 1-2 10, John
Wathen 1-3 1-2 3, Justin
Fox 2-4 1-2 5, Jacob
Alstadt 3-5 1-2 7, Jacob
Morsch 2-5 0-0 4, Nick
Gudmunson 0-1 0-0 0,
Johnnie Stephens 2-6 1-2
5, Daniel Reiss 1-3 0-2 2,
David Grutza 0-0 0-0 0,
Matt Grutza 0-0 0-0 0, Eric
Thomas 0-0 0-0 0. Totals
16-38 5-12 39.
H-BR (58) – Bernie Conley
5-14 3-5 16, Jared Madden
5-9 0-3 10, Zach Michels 3-
6 3-4 9, Mitch Ruh 2-4 2-2
8, Mitchell Hemesath 3-4 1-
2 7, Michael Bayler 2-3 2-2
6, Andrew Klambauer 0-0
0-0 0, Billy Weissinger 0-0
0-0 0, Mac Carls 0-1 0-0 0,
Nick Gentry 1-2 0-0 2,
Colin Goodson 0-0 0-0 0, J.
D. Oeters 0-0 0-0 0. Totals
21-43 11-18 58.
Somo. (13-11) 2 13 10 14 – 39
H-BR (19-7) 13 15 14 16 – 58
3-point goals – Somonauk
2-11 (Stahl 1-5, Krischel 1-
1, Wathen 0-1, Morsch 0-1,
Stephens 0-3); H-BR 5-15
(Conley 3-9, Madden 0-2,
Ruh 2-4). Rebounds –
Somonauk 21 (Krischel
10); H-BR 27 (Hemesath
8). Assists – Somonauk 9
(Krischel 3); H-BR 14
(Conley 4). Steals –
Somonauk 5 (5 with 1
each); H-BR 15 (Conley 5).
Blocks – Somonauk 1
(Wathen); H-BR 1
(Madden). Turnovers –
Somonauk 20, H-BR 12.
Total fouls (fouled out) –
Somonauk 18 (Stahl); H-
BR 13 (none).
Photo by Cody Cutter
Hinckley-Big Rock's boys basketball team won the 2012 Little Ten Tournament
championship by beating Somonauk on Friday night. The title is the Royals' first since 2001
and the team is currently unbeaten in the Little Ten regular-season slate.
Hinckley-Big Rock's boys basketball team won the 2012 Little Ten Tournament
championship by beating Somonauk on Friday night. The title is the Royals' first since 2001
and the team is currently unbeaten in the Little Ten regular-season slate.