NORMAL, Ill. — With the win secured and the benches emptied, Kenwood junior guard Danielle Brooks was the lone starter still on the court after her senior teammates were subbed out to a roaring ovation late in the fourth quarter.
As she dribbled up the court and the buzzer sounded, she flung the ball high in the air and ran toward her teammates. The journey was complete. After crushing losses to Benet and Nazareth in the supersectional back-to-back years, the Broncos broke through this year after beating Marist on Monday.
Kenwood (35-3) completed their season with the school’s first IHSA Class 4A state championship in a 65-44 win over Fremd (30-6) at Illinois State’s CEFCU Arena.
“Since my freshman year, we lost in the supersectional,” said Brooks, who scored 24 points. “We should have went down [to the state playoffs], but I knew we were going to come down here one way or another.”
The Broncos had experienced winning and lots of it over the years. But Saturday’s win was different. This group has ran the gaumet of emotional games over the years. From losing four city championship games to coming just short in supersectional games.
“It has been a journey,” said senior guard Ariella Henigan, who scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds. “We’ve been taking so many losses, and I feel like me and my teammates, we learned from the losses that we took — losing [CPS city championship] me personally four years. So just learning from those losses.”
The Broncos suffered through foul trouble to key starters senior forward Diann Jackson and Henigan, who each had four apiece. Their foul woes forced the Broncos to go deep in their bench. Coach Andre Lewis said senior forward Shalia Poole hadn’t played in the past several games, but she came in and delivered some smothering defense and controlled the glass for the Broncos.
Chicago State commit Jade Hamilton-Gill is a rotation player for the Broncos, but she was thrust into a more prominent role on Saturday, playing 14 minutes. She grabbed four rebounds and was a deterrent in the paint, blocking two shots.
“Jade’s not gonna back down from anybody,” Lewis said. “Jade is somebody that you don’t really get to intimidate. When she’s focused, she’s dynamic on the defensive end.”
Poole and Hamilton-Gill’s steady performances were paramount to Kenwood’s win. What the two might have lacked in the offensive skill of Henigan and Jackson, they more than made up for it with their smothering defense. The two helped keep the Broncos afloat and bought Henigan and Jackson time in the third quarter to ensure they played some of the fourth quarter. That’s when the floodgates opened.
After Fremd’s Isabella Del Mar made a free throw to make it a three-point Kenwood lead, the Broncos erupted and went on an 11-0 run to extend their three-point fourth-quarter lead to 14.
The Broncos forced five turnovers and held Fremd to nine points on 3-for-12 shooting in the fourth quarter.
“Sharks smell blood in the water,” Lewis said. “We fed off of that. The more we got steals, the more we made them uncomfortable.”
Senior guard London Walker-George was the impetus for the defensive stand with her nonstop effort and forcefulness. The senior guard finished with a team-high five steals while adding 19 points. Saturday was the culmination of a four-year journey for Kenwood to get over the hump.
The Broncos have seven seniors who set a high bar for success. But Henigan, who’s Kenwood’s all-time leading scorer, is confident that this is just the start of a run of success for the Broncos and her younger teammates.
“I know that this will not be the last state championship that they bring home to Kenwood,” Henigan said.