No coach? No star center? How Auburn basketball survived to remain perfect in the NIC-10

ROCKFORD — Bryan Ott said it was “killing him” to miss his first Auburn boys basketball game in 23 years. Star center Mike Jones was also out.

Auburn survived, beating Hononegah 77-69 on Friday. Here are the top four reasons the Knights (17-3, 10-0) remained undefeated in the NIC-10 — even with two key figures missing for COVID reasons.

Little-used big man steps up

Little-used 6-foot-4 senior Will Glass started in place of the missing 6-6 Jones. And he went up against a Hononegah front line that often included 6-9 Dominic Commisso, 6-6 Braydon Savitski-Lynde and 6-6 Adam Steege.

“I play against Mike all the time in practice, so I am used to it at this point,” Glass said. “But it was like three Mikes out there.”

Glass held his own. He scored a career-high nine points and had a couple of the game’s biggest plays. One of his offensive rebounds led to a basket by Rob Chaney to keep Auburn ahead 45-40 and he took a charge against Owen Hart (22 points) that might have been a four-point swing.

COVID: COVID-19 is disrupting NIC-10 basketball seasons. What if it hits the title chase?

If it had been a foul on Glass, Hart would have had a chance to complete a three-point play. Instead, Hononegah protested and got called for a technical, where Auburn made 1 of 2 free throws. Rakim Chaney also made a runner in the lane on that possession to give Auburn its biggest lead at 52-44.

“My favorite play was that charge,” Glass said. “It gave us a defensive stop to help get on a roll.”

“That was a heck of a play down the stretch,” said Joe Danforth, Auburn’s acting head coach. “It kept the momentum going.

“Will just played tough. The talk with him has been, 'When your number is called, you’ve got to be ready to play. All I need you to do is be mean, be violent and play hard.' He did that. He bought into everything we said.”

And he got to do it against the team with the best fleet of big men in the conference.

“It felt really nice,” Glass said. “I got a chance to prove myself out there.”

Auburn had timely shooting

Hononegah (10-8, 5-5) had Auburn struggling on offense most of the game. The Knights were 4-for-24 on 3-pointers until all-conference guard Adrian Agee (19 points) hit a corner 3 to put them ahead 59-52 with 5:50 to play. Then Agee hit a 15-footer and another corner 3. Auburn wound up making its last three 3-pointers, plus a shot where Terry Horton was just inside the line, to pull away in the last six minutes.

Girls hoops: Winnebago girls basketball was 'beaten up' in first loss. Here's how it bounced back

“They just started hitting their shots at the end,” Hononegah’s Commisso (17 points) said. “We were scrambling and they were making great passes. They just got away from us.”

“They didn’t fall for most of the night, but when it was time, we made them for sure,” Auburn senior guard Rob Chaney said.

This Auburn guard had the scoop

Rob Chaney, who missed the last two seasons with a pair of severe injuries to the same knee, led Auburn with 27 points. Most of those were on drives to the basket, often finishing with a scoop shot.

“He’s good at that,” Honoengah’s Commisso said. “He’s a great player. He finishes well. But we let him get around us. We should have played better defense.”

“That’s a shot I practice a lot,” Chaney said. “You don’t see it that much because a lot of guards just try to draw contact. I can go right over them and scoop it over them.

“In practice we do a lot of one-hand scoop finishes with Coach Ott and Coach Joe. They do guard and big breakdowns. So we practice those one-hand finishes a lot.”

“That,” Danforth said, “is just part of his arsenal.”

Hono analysis: Hononegah basketball hopes injury and illness jinx ends in time for postseason run

A veteran fill-in on the bench

Ott is the longest-tenured coach in the NIC-10, now with 397 career victories. But Auburn was in good hands with Danforth at the helm. He has been one of Ott’s assistants for 16 years and has been a long-time head coach at the sophomore level.

“I’ve probably got the best sophomore record in the NIC-10,” Danforth said.

Still, Friday was a landmark day for NBA star Fred VanVleet’s step father, to finally be the head man on the bench for a varsity game. And to get a win.

“It was fun. I had a good time,” Danforth said. “Oh my gosh, you beat a good team, a team that was highly ranked in the NIC-10 with a great coach and great players. That was a huge win.”

Matt Trowbridge: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com; @matttrowbridge

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: How Auburn beat Hononegah to stay perfect in NIC-10 without Ott, Jones