Late in the third quarter against Lane Tech, New Trier senior guard Tinah Hong dribbled at the top of the key surveying the defense. Her sister, sophomore Aimee Hong, came off a screen and cut across the lane, and Tinah Hong hit her in stride for an easy layup.
It was the elder Hong’s fourth assist of the quarter and sixth of the game. If you only watched this quarter of basketball, you might think she was a full-time facilitator for the Trevians. That’s not the case.
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Just a quarter earlier, Hong was on the other end of those passes. She scored 12 points in the second quarter alone, finishing with 16 points for the game while knocking down three three-pointers.
“I think my teammates did a really good job looking for me [in the first half],” Hong said after the game. “We had really good ball movement and we forced my defender to help off of me. So the shots were there, my teammates found me often.
“[In the second half] they finally started guarding me, so then I had the drive open. And the drive and dishes were very open. My teammates got open and I could always find them for easy shots, and they all knocked them down. It was a very high shooting percentage for us today.”
This take-what-the-defense-gives-you mindset isn’t Hong’s alone; it is how the Trevians played all season. New Trier had a different leading scorer each quarter in its 71-41 win in the 4A regional semifinal against Lane Tech.
Junior Olivia Becker, who had 15 points and five rebounds against Lane Tech, said that was the identity of this New Trier team, whose season came to an end in a 47-29 regional final loss to Loyola.
“It’s really nice because we know how to play with each other really well,” Becker said. “And that starts in practice and the high energy in practice. Us passing, looking for the next shot, just moving the ball a lot.”
Hong and Becker were the two Trevians named to the all-Central Suburban League team this season.
“It’s an honor for them, but as I told the team, it’s really an honor for your whole team,” coach Teri Rodgers said. “If you don’t have a very good team you’re not going to get any [all-conference awards]. Not only is it a great honor for these two, it’s a great team honor as well. They’ve been really able to score in a variety of ways, and distribute as well.
“And what I think is nice is those five starters, and Hannah [Schneiderman] coming off the bench, they trust everybody to score. Whoever’s got the best matchup or who’s got the best shot, everybody’s trusting them to take it.”
Though the Trevians graduate five seniors, including starters Hong and Ava Zaslavsky, they’ll return four of their top six in the rotation: juniors Becker, Schneiderman and Aiden Casey, as well as sophomore Abigail Ryan.
For Hong, the honor was a special way to cap off her career from an individual standpoint.
“It’s always been one of my dreams to get that since I was a freshman, so to get it my senior year means a lot,” she said.
Jakub Rudnik is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press
Twitter @Pioneer_Press