:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/IFQ3DVR2WJG3BKXYWVZ6GKFEQU.JPG)
HINCKLEY — Hinckley-Big Rock didn’t score in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Class 1A Hinckley-Big Rock Regional championship game against Rochelle Zell.
The Royals didn’t need to, using three huge runs to blowout the Tigers, 57-18, to win their first regional title since 2011.
Hinckley-Big Rock (26-7) advances to Wednesday’s 1A Elgin Sectional semifinal against Chicago Marshall.
“I don’t have any complaints tonight,” Royals coach Seth Sanderson said. “You get into the postseason and you’ll take a one-point win as many times as you can get it.”
Rochelle Zell (15-7) was frustrated offensively all evening as the Royals did their homework, watching film and recreating the sets in practice that the Tigers used to edge Elgin Academy on Wednesday.
“Our assistant coach Daniel Novotny did a great job of scouting for bench players and they got assigned a role in practice,” Royals sophomore Max Hintzsche said. “They were calling out their plays and stuff during those days of practice.”
It was apparent as the Royals used a 10-0 run to take a 17-7 lead with 1:37 left in the first quarter. After a nifty move from Aden Lerner to break the run, the Royals proceeded to go on a 16-0 run to take a 33-7 lead with 2:13 left in the first half.
“Our scout guys did a really good job of installing the sets,” Sanderson said. “They are such a set-heavy team and if you execute well against it, you shut them down. If you don’t execute well against it, they got shot, shot, shot. And coming into the year, defense was my biggest worry. I didn’t know if we were going to be able to get stops and from when we started until now, we’ve made huge strides.”
Max Hintzsche led a balanced attack with 12 points as he knocked down four 3-pointers. Landon Roop and Tyler Smith each had 11 points apiece, Martin Ledbetter added eight points and 15 rebounds and Ben Hintzsche contributed 7 points.
“In a game like this when you have that, it takes the pressure off of everyone,” Sanderson said. “You don’t feel like anybody has to carry you. I was extremely happy.”
Another 16-0 run to open the third quarter ultimately led to a running clock and allowed the Royals to pull their starters before the fourth quarter.
“We kept on pressuring them so they had no real opportunity to get good looks,” Roop said. “And we don’t take any plays off mentally and we were focused throughout the whole game.”
The Royals didn’t even shoot a free throw, while forcing 14 turnovers.
“This feels great,” Max Hintzsche said. “Coming into the season we didn’t know the regional was going to be on our home court. To do this on our home court, makes it so much better.”
The Royals advance to the Class 1A Elgin Sectional at 7 p.m. Wednesday, facing Chicago Marshall (15-10). The winner will face either Chicago Hope (21-8) or Harvest Christian (24-9).