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ELGIN – Hinckley-Big Rock turned a 12-point deficit against Chicago Marshall into only two points with 3:55 left in the Class 1A Elgin Sectional semifinal on Wednesday.
But the field goal by Martin Ledbetter were the last points for the Royals as Chicago Marshall scored the last eight in a 59-49 win.
It means the world to me, just the four years, the transition I’ve gone through - eight wins my first season to 26 this season. It’s just incredible to me. Being able to play with my older brother [Richard] for two years, to be able to play with my younger brother [Max] for a year. Nothing matches it.”
— H-BR senior Ben Hintzsche
“We came out with a lot of energy and it showed,” Hinckley-Big Rock senior Ben Hintzsche said. “We shot the ball not so well in the first half, but in the second half we started shooting the ball better. We executed all the way up until the end when we kind of just fell apart.”
After a close first half, the Commandos (16-11) opened up a 45-33 lead with 1:42 left in the third. But Tyler Smith hit a 3-pointer as time expired in the third quarter to cut the lead to seven, then later in the fourth Ledbetter scored six straight points for the Royals (26-8) to cut the lead to 51-49 with 3:55 left.
But the Commandos turned up the heat defensively, with Marquise Williams and Ja’Juan Cozark getting big steals and Cozark adding a block to help spark a closing 8-0 run that sealed the win and a date with Chicago Hope Academy on Friday for the sectional title.
H-BR coach Seth Sanderson said if his team made a shot to tie the game – it took the Commandos more than 2 minutes to score and start their 8-0 steak – it would have been a different game.
“I thought we battled,” Sanderson said. “We got down 12 there in the third quarter, came back, got the ball a couple times down two. We just couldn’t get that one. We just needed one more make, one more shot out of it. Super proud. Undersized, under-lengthed in a lot of spots. So really, really proud. I thought they executed, I thought they worked their tails off. Just one bucket short. I think if we tied it, it switches a little there. We just couldn’t quite get there.”
Ledbetter finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds against the tallest front line the Royals have faced this year. The 6-5 sophomore had to go against the 6-6 Coark and 6-8 center Joel Brown, who finished with three points and six rebounds.
Cozark finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks and three steals.
“I think he matched up with by far the biggest front line we’ve seen,” Sanderson said. “There was some feeling out in the first half, but I thought even in that first half he had some good shots, just missed them. In the second half I thought he took control. Probably an eight-minute stretch he was our offense. We got him the ball and he finished over some hands, over some length.”
Playing his last game for the Royals, Hintzsche had 10 points, including a pair of 3-pointers.
Hintzsche led a group of seniors that were part of a team that went 8-24 in 2019, and four years later tied the program record for wins in a season and won a regional for the first time since 2012.
It was the most wins in a season for the Royals since 1984.
“It means the world to me, just the four years, the transition I’ve gone through – eight wins my first season to 26 this season,” Hintzshe said. “It’s just incredible to me. Being able to play with my older brother [Richard] for two years, to be able to play with my younger brother [Max] for a year. Nothing matches it.”