Hinckley-Big Rock lost its best player, Jacqueline Madden, to a knee injury just two games into the season. But the Royals battled all the way to a Class 1A regional title game on Thursday.
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And even though the Royals’ season ended in a 53-33 loss to host Harvest Christian, this year’s team left a mark that coach Greg Burks won’t soon forget.
“I love my kids. These seniors put a lot of effort and time into each other for four years, and faced an incredibly challenging season,” Burks said. “But like they’ve done for four years, these kids battled to the final horn.”
With Madden on crutches looking on, Hinckley-Big Rock (13-16) kept things close through a quarter of play and trailed 10-8 thanks to five points from Alexis Gonzalez.
Jordan Bullard’s basket tied the game to start the second at 10-10, but Harvest Christian (21-6) went on a 10-0 run that put the Lions in the driver’s seat.
And with guards Kylee Knox (18 points) and Paulina Castro (19 points) beginning to bury threes with regularity, the Royals began to struggle.
“They hit some tough shots and the shots didn’t fall for us,” Gonzalez said. “But I thought our girls played great. We took our shots and had our chances.
“I just think shots fell for them and didn’t fall for us. But we never gave up and it was a dogfight for us. There was never a game where we just laid down and died. We always fought.”
The Lions led 40-24 after three quarters and kept control from there. Gonzalez finished with eight points to lead the Royals, Meghan Menzel and Karrigan Cowan scored five apiece, and Anne Klein scored six.
“They shot really well, we unfortunately fell behind, and didn’t have enough horsepower to come back,” Burks said. “Your option here is to try to slow their two best players and hope that the others beat you. We did a very good job defensively, but (Knox) hit some very big shots tonight.”
Hinckley bids farewell to seniors Gonzalez, Madden, Cowan, Bullard, Klein, and Taylor Ray, and Madden tipped her hat to the Royals on the way out of the gym in Elgin.
“They really came back and showed their character,” Madden said. “They kept trying. They’re amazing. I’m so proud of them, just to be on their team and to be a part of the program. I grew up watching the program and (Burks) is one of my all-time favorite coaches.”
Gary Larsen is a freelance writer.