HEADY OBJECTIVE
Senior forward tallies 14 points, seven rebounds as Hillcrest tops Lemont for sectional championship
Hillcrest coach Don Houston said senior forward Quentin Heady is “on a mission.”
Two of Heady’s biggest objectives had been to go on a deeper postseason run this winter and to get some more attention from college coaches after a slow recruiting process.
Heady’s strong playoff performances are making the first goal happen. And the second one?
“I sure hope this gets me some attention,” Heady said. “I need to show people that they need to look at me, for sure.”
Coming off a 31-point outburst in the semifinals, Heady put on another show Friday.
He scored 14 points and pulled down seven rebounds as the top-seeded host Hawks beat second-seeded Lemont 45-39 in the Class 3A Hillcrest Sectional championship game.
Tolu Samuels finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds to lead Hillcrest (29-3), which won its first sectional title since the 201617 season. Akron recruit Darrion Baker added nine points and seven rebounds, while Bryce Tillery contributed six points.
The Hawks will take on Simeon (30-3) at 6 p.m. Monday in the Illinois-Chicago Supersectional.
“I have high hopes about that,” Heady said. “I feel like we’re the underdogs and they’re supposed to be No. 1, so I’m excited.”
Rokas Castillo scored 19 points, Conor Murray had seven points and Ryan Runaas chipped in six points for Lemont (28-7), which lost for just the third time this season with the Castillo twins in the lineup. Matas Castillo was held to five points.
The Hawks avenged last season’s 40-35 sectional semifinal loss to Lemont, which went on to win the sectional.
“We had to get our get back,” Heady said. “We had to get this. We’ve been motivated since last year, the day we lost. We remember that feeling.
“Ever since the playoffs started, I think about that game every day. I’ve been thinking, ‘We’ve got to send them home.’ ”
Heady was a steady presence, scoring in every quarter on a night when points were hard to come by.
“We’ve had a good, aggressive ‘Q’ all season,” Houston said of Heady. “He had a little stretch of the season where he was down,
but we knew he’d come back strong.”
Hillcrest made it tough for Lemont to find open shots and the Hawks also made a slow game work for them, although it was far from their typical pace.
“It’s tough for us, but we’ve learned how to play any style of basketball,” Houston said. “We’ve played against every style and we’ve played every style.
“We had to crack down on half-court defense and not make any mistakes. That’s what we work on in practice every day.”
Lemont hit five 3-pointers in the first half but made just one after halftime.
“They’re just so good at limiting their turnovers and doing what they want,” Lemont coach Rick Runaas said. “There were times when we thought we had a steal and they’d take it right back.
“That’s what great teams do. They made it tough on us by not giving us easy baskets, and we had some good looks that didn’t go in.”
After a back-and-forth first three quarters, two baskets from Heady early in the fourth helped Hillcrest stretch its lead to 36-29.
Lemont pulled within 36-33 with 3:45 to go, but Samuels answered with a basket and Baker — after missing his first two free throws of the game — made 5 of 6 from the line in the final three minutes to seal the win.
“We always look at the same screenshot of the score from last year and we knew we couldn’t go out there and lose again,” Samuels said. “That gave us some extra fire.”