Tyler DeMartra did a little bit of everything Friday night for Homewood-Flossmoor.
In the first half, the 6-foot-3, 190-pound junior forward showed his versatility with 12 points, five rebounds and a near-steal at midcourt.
“You can tell he has something special,” H-F senior Kendric Pryor said. “You see it in the way he jumps out of the gym, grabs rebounds, putbacks. I think he has a bright future.”
DeMartra led H-F to a 31-16 halftime lead over Stagg that turned into a 59-43 SouthWest Suburban Blue victory.
DeMartra scored a game-high 18 points for the host Vikings (10-4, 4-1) on a combination of short jumpers and well-positioned layups. He also finished with eight rebounds and two blocks.
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“Everything was falling for me,” DeMartra said. “I usually take the same shots in practice. It’s something I’m used to. We play hard in practice so the games come easy.
“It’s all about playing hard, being aggressive, and all the extra stuff will come with playing hard.”
That’s the way H-F coach Marc Condotti sees it, too.
“He has kind of continued to progress. He’s kind of our go-to guy as far as a defender,” Condotti said. “We’re starting to get it offensively out of him as well.
“He’s a big, strong kid. He’s athletic. He can do a lot of different things. He’s got good instincts.”
H-F did a lot of good things early. The Vikings raced to a 10-1 lead and were ahead 20-8 going into the second quarter.
Pryor (14 points), Cameron Bowles (10 points, 5 rebounds) and Jeffrey Boyd (seven points) gave H-F a balanced attack.
“We don’t have any selfish players,” Pryor said. ”Teams try to key in on one player, like on me. There’s other players who can score the ball.”
Stagg (11-5, 3-2) dropped its second straight conference game after wins over Lockport, Joliet West and Joliet Central.
“We had a terrible week of practice,” Stagg coach John Daniels said. “When you have bad practices, it goes into a flat game. If you look at the first half, I thought we started flat.
“We had a decent game plan. We didn’t do some things defensively. We allowed them to catch the ball in the high post. That’s a mistake. That’s the center of their offense. Homewood-Flossmoor beat us.”
Josh Blim led Stagg with 14 points. Darek Liput and Martin Macenis both had eight points.
H-F has won four straight in the SouthWest Blue after a loss to Joliet Central. The Vikings’ next conference game is Friday at Lockport.
“You get to this time of the year, you want things to kind of start falling into place,” Condotti said. “One of our main goals during the season is around this time of year, start coming together, making sure everything is jelling.”
Tim Tierney is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.