Homewood-Flossmoor took plenty of Marian Catholic’s best shots during Thursday’s 62-51 victory in the Class 4A Lincoln-Way North Sectional final.
Vikings senior Faith Suggs took an inadvertent one to her forehead with 6:18 left to play that had her seeing stars.
“I caught an elbow,” she said. “The next thing I knew blood was all over the place.”
During the final two minutes, it was Suggs who was all over the place. Her head wrapped in gauze and athletic tape, Suggs looked every bit the warrior as she hit a 3-pointer, swished four free throws, grabbed two rebounds and had the assist on a three-point play by teammate Eva Rubin.
That was more than enough of an answer for everything Marian had to offer.
“I had confidence,” Suggs said. “But for our whole team, all of the hard work we put in throughout the season came out.”
Suggs finished with 19 points and nine rebounds, Rubin 14 points and five rebounds and Nadia Green 12 points and nine rebounds for H-F (19-6), which will play Trinity in Monday’s Mother McAuley Supersectional.
Teniya Page scored 31 points and Jerell Matthews had 10 for Marian Catholic (28-3).
It was the Suggs-Rubin show in the second half for H-F. The duo scored 26 of the Vikings’ 34 points. Rubin, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, was pretty much unshakeable as she took several dishes underneath and converted them.
“No fear,” Rubin said. “I put my fear on the side because I knew I had to step up for the team. I knew my job was to run the floor and to rebound as much as I could. I did that, and I knew my baskets would come.”
Early on it was Green who sparkled for H-F, scoring all 12 of her points in a first half during which H-F led by as much as 18-8. Page, however, rallied Marian with a phenomenal second quarter.
The Penn State-bound senior scored 15 of the Spartans’ 19 points, assisting on the other two baskets by Matthews. It was 28-26 H-F at the half.
Marian never did click as a unit, however. Suggs instead went on a tear in the third quarter as H-F shut down the other Spartans and opened up a 44-33 lead.
“That was the game plan,” H-F coach Tony Smith said. “A lot people try to focus on that one kid. But the other kids can play, too. I wanted to play a man-to-man, and if one player beat us, so be it.
“(Page) almost pulled it off. She did a great job and she’s a great kid.”
Page got some help in the fourth, especially from Zaria Sydnor and Matthews, who hit clutch 3-pointers. Marian got within 53-51 with 1:40 remaining before Rubin answered with a 3-point play on a beautiful assist from Suggs.
“Teniya put the cape on to keep us in the game, but it just never seemed that we could get everybody into the flow,” Marian coach Dan Murray said. “We were never able to get over the hump to take the lead and see how they responded in return.”
Twitter: @tbaranek
