Boys basketball: McHenry’s Marko Visnjevac hits game-winner for win over Rockford Christian

MARENGO – McHenry guard Marko Visnjevac had a game for 31 minutes, 58 seconds he would just as soon wiped from his memory.

The ending of Marengo’s 73rd annual E.C. Nichols Holiday Classic championship, however, is something Visnjevac will never forget.

Visnjevac missed a 3-pointer from the left corner with the score tied and 10 seconds remaining, but the Warriors’ Dylan Hurckes grabbed the rebound and flipped the ball to Hayden Stone.

Stone whipped a pass to Visnjevac on the left wing, and he took off just outside the lane, tossing in a floater at the buzzer to cap McHenry’s improbable comeback for a 66-64 victory over Rockford Christian.

It was the first game-winning shot Visnjevac made in a varsity game.

“I didn’t really have a good first half or a good second half,” said Visnjevac, who scored seven points. “My teammates kept me going. I shot the first one, and Dylan got the offensive rebound. He’s really good at that.

“I saw a good look, and time was running out, and I’m pretty good at floaters, so, yeah.”

The McHenry bench stormed the court to celebrate the victory. Making it more special was that the Warriors (11-4) had trailed 46-29 at halftime after the Royal Lions (6-2) hit 10 3-pointers. Guard Christian Cummings had seven 3s and 26 points at halftime; he finished with 40 points.

“Really, we just didn’t have any oomph, any fire [in the first half],” Warriors coach Corky Card said. “That kid [Cummings] had shot the ball great. He had done that through other games. Give them credit, they took the ball right at us. To shoot like he did, he’s a heck of a player.”

But Card said he believed McHenry’s 1-2-2 ball press defense, which it used full court a lot in the second half, wore down the Lions, who used five players most of the game while the Warriors played 11.

“We just did better [defensively],” Visnjevac said. “We knew what we had to do, but we weren’t executing. No. 2 is a heck of a player, he wasn’t missing anything, we couldn’t give him good looks.”

McHenry’s 6-foot-6 sophomore Adam Anwar scored 21 points and hit 9 of 13 field goals. The Warriors cut into the lead with a 21-10 third quarter.

“We were just way more aggressive at both ends of the floor,” Card said. “On offense, we were attacking the basket and getting the ball to Adam. That’s the best Adam has played on offense. He went at a good pace.

“On defense, we tried to pressure them more and tried to take some charges. They went to the rim unabated in the first half.”

McHenry eventually tied the score at 56-56, then took a lead on Hurckes’ two buckets inside. But Cummings came back and scored twice to put the Lions ahead 64-62 with 1:57 remaining.

Stone scored inside to tie it at 64-64, then Rockford Christian had a long possession, but it ended with a turnover out of bounds. McHenry called timeout with 28 seconds remaining to set up its final possession.

Card said if they had a good opportunity, they were supposed to take it and not necessarily wait for a last-second shot. Visnjevac did that with an open 3, but missed.

“I knew there was a few seconds left, so I crashed to the boards,” Hurckes said. “The ball came straight to me. I usually like to crash.”

Rockford Christian coach Isiaiah Johnson felt like the Lions did get a little tired in the second half.

“We were a step slower on the defensive end,” he said. “We’re a smaller team. One of the things we stress is making sure we’re boxing out and rebounding and last play of the game, what happened? We didn’t get the rebound.

“It was tough with us being small. We did a great job in the first half of boxing out and getting rebounds (for an 18-10 advantage). We’re small and we run, maybe we were a little bit tired. We didn’t shoot the ball as well in the second half. We let them get back in it quick by taking quick shots instead of running a little bit of offense.”

Caleb Jett added 11 points and Stone had eight for the Warriors.

Cummings hit 14 of 26 field goals and was 5 for 5 at the line for his 40. Elijah Daugherty scored 13 and Brody Carlson added 11 for all of Rockford Christian’s scoring.

Although McHenry could not slow the Lions down in the first half, the Warriors maintained the faith after halftime.

“We have a great group of guys who never give up on each other, so that’s the main thing,” Visnjevac said. “We all bought into what our coaches were telling us.”

McHenry 66, Rockford Christian 64

ROCKFORD CHRISTIAN (64)

Williams 0 0-0 0, Cummings 14 5-5 40, Daugherty 3 6-6 13, Carlson 4 1-2 11, Longley 0 0-0 0, Kopp 0 0-0 0, McGonigal 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 12-13 64.

McHENRY (66)

Visnjevac 3 0-0 7, D. Hurckes 2 2-2 6, Stone 3 2-3 8, Jett 5 0-0 11, Anwar 9 0-0 21, Stojich 2 0-0 4, Sites 1 0-0 2, Maness 1 0-0 3, Honea 1 0-0 2, Bronowicki 0 0-0 0, T. Hurckes 0 0-0 0. Totals: 32 4-4 66.

Rockford Christian 20 26 10 8 – 64

McHenry 17 12 21 16 – 66

3-point goals: Rockford Christian 10 (Cummings 7, Carlson 2, Daugherty), McHenry 6 (Anwar 3, Visnjevac, Jett, Maness). Total fouls: Rockford Christian 8, McHenry 16.