Lady Indians Experience Icy Patch Closing 2016

 By Chris Johnson, REPORTER

 Playing in the Dundee Crown Holiday Invitational Tournament is quite a distinction. Many of the strongest teams in the State of Illinois have been influenced through actions at the annual event. The Hononegah Lady Indians understand what it takes to win at Dundee Crown. They just didn’t have a comfortable amount of success this time around.

Hononegah had a tough time dealing with some of the powerhouses from the western and northern suburbs as they played following a day off to celebrate the Christmas Holiday. Coming off a three-game winning streak which lead up to the holiday, Hononegah slipped as they entered Carpentersville.

 Maine West was featured in early-round action. The Lady Indians fell 58-46. The Lady Warriors remained undefeated as they gave Hononegah its third loss of the season. The following night of tournament play at Dundee Crown ended similarly for Hononegah. They lost to Oak Park’s own, Bishop Fenwick. The eleven-point loss, 72-61, was an improvement for Hononegah. The Lady Friars are experienced with Championship Tournament play.

In the final night of play, Maine South completed the task and shutdown Hononegah by a margin of 57-40. The three-game losing streak was written down and the page was turned to 2017. The NIC-10 season came back to the front page for the Lady Indians and the Guilford Lady Vikings discovered they may have wanted to miss that edition as they fell 82-30. Hononegah allowed Guilford ten points through the first two periods of play. The Lady Indians didn’t wait around however. They began knocking down bombs on the way to a 32-point halftime advantage, 42-10. Over the next two periods of the NIC-10 2017 opener, Hononegah scored 40 points and held Guilford away from the basket, limiting them to 20 points in the two periods combined.

Jordan King scored 27 points for Hononegah and received solid support from Berkley Byron who had eleven. Meagan Matuska finished with ten and Cali Schmitz closed down the night with nine points of her own. In all, eleven players put points on the board for the Lady Indians in the Conference win.

The NIC-10 race continued on Tuesday, Jan. 10 as the Lady E-Rabs traveled to Rockton for an important head-to-head battle. Rockford East is one of a handful of teams attempting to track down and overtake the Boylan Lady Titans in the chase for the Conference crown. Hononegah will invite Boylan in on Friday, Jan. 20. Before that though, they will have to travel to Freeport for a meeting Friday night, Jan. 13.

Harlem visits Rockton to close a brief two-game home stand on Tuesday, Jan. 24. The Lady Indians travel to Belvidere and Guilford to shut down January.

As February arrives, Hononegah should have a good idea of where they will stack up when the IHSA Girls State Basketball Playoffs begin following completion of the regular season finale at Rockford Auburn on Feb. 9.