Hononegah routs Crystal Lake South

Stifling pressure defense, prolific offense and depth.

Hononegah's girls basketball team possessed the total package in cruising past Crystal Lake South 61-21 in a final round game of the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving Tournament Tuesday night at South.

"Hononegah is a very very talented team," said South coach Mark Mucha. "They are long, athletic and lengthy. They have all the pieces to have a great season. This is a tough test for us with two freshmen and eight kids with no varsity experience. We play 29 games and we hope to learn from every game."

The Indians, 4-0 in the tournament, seized control of the outset scoring the first 9 points of the game on 3-pointers by Hannah Malcolmson, Kaitlin Young and Jordan King.

The Gators, 1-3 in the tourney, got on the scoreboard when Ava Sevcik buried a 3-pointer with 5:08 left in the first quarter.

Leading 19-6 after one quarter Hononegah, which made 7-of-10 from beyond the arc, put the game on ice by scoring the first 14 points of the second quarter to take a 33-6 lead with 4:06 left before intermission.

Malcolmson and Young canned treys while Jenisa Peltonen collected a pair of baskets and King scored 4 points with a basket and a 2 free throws during the Indians' 14-point surge.

Hononegah's defense was on full display in the third quarter. While scoring 10 points, the Indians held the Gators scoreless and led 50-12 after 3 quarters.

"I really like the way we played defense," said Hononegah coach Randy Weibel. "We contested every pass and were very active. We contested most of South's shots and took them out of their offense. I like the way we played defense for all four games of the tournament."

The Gators, who lost 1-point decisions to South Elgin and Palatine, scored their first point of the second half with 5:02 left on a free throw by Emily Sulikowski.

South's first basket of the half came courtesy of a trey by Izzy Doyle with 3:26 left in the game.

King paced Hononegah with 18 points, 4 assists and 6 rebounds while Malcolmson added 10 points.

South was paced by Vasi Prokos with 7 points.

"We could have easily have been 3-1 in the tournament," said Mucha. "We had two really tough losses to South Elgin and Palatine. For such a young and inexperienced team we did some good things during the first four games."