Homewood-Flossmoor wins Illinois Class 4A boys basketball state championship
FLOSSMOOR, Ill. — On Saturday, Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School took home its first Illinois High School Association Class 4A boys basketball state championship trophy, and a crowd gathered in the south suburbs Sunday to celebrate the big win.
“I feel great, this is really crazy to me,” player Bryce Heard said
Homewood-Flossmoor took home the win after beating Normal Community High School, 60-48, inside the State Farm Center in Champaign.
Heard led the charge in the state title game with a game-high 21 points and team highs of 10 rebounds and three assists, while Jayden Tyler totaled 15 points, seven boards and three steals for the Vikings and Carson Brownfield stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.
“The energy from (Saturday)’s game is just phenomenal. I’m so proud of these guys,” alumnus Andrew Fryerson said.
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Fryerson described the energy in the arena leading up to the big win.
“Watching the championship was just so energetic, so phenomenal, so everythinG … I can’t even describe it,” he said.
“It was the greatest feeling in the world. There wasn’t one person that didn’t shed a tear.”
The team was welcomed home with a Sunday-morning rally attended by dozens of fans in the community.
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“The best thing about this group is after every loss, the next practice was amazing,” head coach Jamere Dismukes, who led the Vikings to victory, said.
Dismukes said the key to the team’s success was resiliency after tough losses.
“In almost every interview, I speak about this group being a family, and I mean that,” Dismukes said.
Homewood-Flossmoor, which defeated New Trier, 40-35, in Thursday’s state semifinals, finished the season with a 33-4 record.
Braylon Roman scored 18 points in the state championship game to lead Normal, which made its first state appearance since 2015 and fell just shy of winning the program’s first state title.
Here are the results from Saturday’s other IHSA boys basketball state title games:
3A: DePaul College Prep 49, Chicago Mt. Carmel 41
DePaul Prep claimed its second consecutive state championship after winning it in Class 2A last season and moving up to 3A this season.
Makai Kvamme led the Rams with 18 points, six rebounds and two assists, Rob Walls added 10 points, Jaylan McElroy totaled eight points and seven boards and PJ Chambers chipped in eight points.
DePaul Prep finished the season with a 35-2 record under head coach Tom Kleinschmidt.
Angelo Ciaravino scored a game-high 24 points to lead Mt. Carmel, which was led by head coach Phil Segroves, also the school’s athletic director, and reached state for the first time since 1985.
2A: Chicago Phillips 54, Benton 47
Phillips claimed its second state title and first since 1975, finishing its championship season with a 25-9 record under head coach Paris Martin.
Isaac Billington scored a game-high 19 points to lead the Wildcats, Evan Munoz added 11 points and Docker Tedeschi totaled seven points, 10 rebounds, six assists, four blocks and two steals.
Lawrence Horton and Phoenix Childs each scored 13 points to pace Benton, which fell just shy of winning the first state title in program history but did secure its first runner-up finish, led by head coach Ron Winemiller.
1A: West-Central Co-op 62, Meridian Mounds 43
The Cougars finished their championship season with a 36-3 record under head coach Ryan Sichting.
Zack Evans had a monster line in the state final game, totaling 27 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and two steals. Chance Little added 16 points for West-Central.
Antonio Flenoid scored 13 points to lead Meridian, which was coached by David Davis and secured the third state runner-up finish in program history.
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