Pecatonica seeks school history; Hononegah shooters stay hot in basketball sectionals
Cooper Hoffman scored 25 points and Mason Peterson 20 and Jordan Gassman led the defense as Pecatonica moved to the precipice of school history, beating Fulton 64-46 in the Class 1A River Ridge sectional semifinals Wednesday.
In other area sectional games Wednesday, Belvidere North and Hononegah both lost close games. Here is how Pecatonica and Hononegah fared:
Pecatonica
Pecatonica (30-5) will now play Eastland (26-9) in the sectional finals Friday. Pecatonica has never won a sectional in school history. Pec had won only one regional title in 24 years before winning the last three years in a row.
More: How a battle of big men turned out between Eastland and South Beloit in sectional showdown
“We’re going to have to defend, rebound and take care of the basketball,” Pec coach Bobby Heisler said of playing Eastland in a rematch of the Pecatonica summer league championship game, which Pec won. “They are still playing and we are still in the mix is not a surprise to us. We’re going to have to play some of our best basketball.”
Gassman held Fulton’s Baylen Damhoff, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard, to 10 points. Heisler said Damhoff only attempted eight shots.
“Jordan is an extremely intelligent basketball player, one of the smartest I’ve worked with,” Heisler said. “He did a great job denying him the ball.”
Hoffman scored 10 points in the first quarter to help Pec jump to a 24-18 lead. He added 11 in the third to stretch the lead to 55-39.
“In the fourth quarter we pulled away and were up 20-plus at one point,” Heisler said. “They went to a three-quarter court trap to try to changes things up and our kids responded well and took care of the basketball. That was the game in a nutshell.”
More: 3 unlikely NIC-10 teams win regional basketball titles, as do three Rockford 1A teams
Peterson made six 3-pointers for Pec, the NUIC North champion. Pec just beat NUIC South co-champ Fulton (23-12) and now plays the other co-champ in Eastland.
Landen Leu led Fulton with 19 points and Trevor Tiesman added 12.
McHenry 58, Hononegah 53
Hononegah (13-17) shot down NIC-10 champ Guilford with a deluge of 3-pointers to become surprise regional champs. Hono used the same script to almost reach the sectional final.
In one of the stranger playoff games in memory, Hononegah did not make a single basket inside the 3-point line until the fourth quarter. But Hononegah made 14 from beyond long range to stay close the whole way. Darian Tholin had 17 points and five 3-pointers, Landon Claudy 14 points and four 3-pointers and Cole Warren 13 points and three long-distance shots.
Warren, Tholin and Cole Schmall each had one normal basket in the final quarter.
McHenry (26-8) also shot well from distance, making as many 3-pointers as two-point shots with nine each.
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford boys basketball roundup: Pecatonica rolls, Hononegah falls
