Homewood-Flossmoor has been a team in transition to start the season. The Vikings graduated star forward Alyssa Latham — currently at Syracuse — and have been trying to forge a new identity with this current group.
Add in the rigorous schedule H-F has played; taking some lumps is natural. The Vikings have played Batavia, Bolingbrook, Butler and Kenwood already. Those are four of the best teams in the state. However, facing the tough competition has benefited the Vikings as they entered this season with many unknowns outside of senior guard Jaeda Murphy.
“We knew Jaeda was used to playing in big-time games,” H-F coach Anthony Smith said. “It was just the other kids coming up and growing up. We played tough. They’re tested now.”
That resolve showed in a dominant 78-46 win over St. Ignatius (7-11) at the Coach Kipp Hoopsfest at Benet Academy. H-F’s pressure-packed defense forced 23 Wolfpack turnovers. From the start of the game to the end, the Vikings played full-court defense and didn’t give Ignatius any breathing room offensively.
“We’ve been working on defense all week in practice, making sure we’re being aggressive,” Murphy said. “We just went into the game making sure we were getting those steals, making those right plays, and staying in help.”
Only Murphy finished in double figures in H-F’s 78-54 loss to Bolingbrook. Against St. Ignatius, H-F (13-6) senior guard Layla Pierce scored 19 points and sophomore guard Aunyai Deere scored 17.
The balanced scoring effort is a notable shift in the team from the beginning of the season.
“We weren’t playing as a team in the beginning; now everybody is continuing to grow in practice and getting better,” Murphy said. “We’re starting to have more players contribute to the game.”
Deere, in particular, had a huge game. Every pass she caught with two feet in the paint turned into two points. She also had the tough job of guarding St. Ignatius’ Audrey Mahoney, a sharp-shooting guard. Deere held Mahoney to five points.
“We gave her their best player and told her, ‘This kid can shoot with the best of them,’” Smith said. “‘Play defense and your offense will come.’”
Smith said the Vikings need to clean up some of the back cuts they allowed and work on not getting lost in rotation.
The Wolfpack, led by junior guard Reganne Reardon, made a run in the third quarter. Reardon was spectacular in the third quarter, scoring 15 points. She drove left and right repeatedly, and the Vikings had no answer for her.
When St. Ignatius cut the Vikings lead to 56-44 with 6:08 in the third quarter, H-F answered with a three-pointer from Pierce and a steal and layup from junior guard Jemiyah McDonald to wrestle back control.
The commitment to defense makes offense easier and eases Murphy’s scoring burden The difference in this win was that Murphy didn’t have to do everything.
“Anytime she has help, we usually win,” Smith said. “The games that we lost, she didn’t have the help and tried to do more. Today, she didn’t have to do that. She’s a pass-first guard, but she’s a kid that wants to win, so she’s gonna do anything it takes to win.”
Kyle Williams is a staff reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.
