Titans face halftime deficit head on, rally to win Hancock County Tournament championship

WARSAW, Ill. — Hunter Froman did not mince any words.

“We thought it was going to be a cakewalk,” said the 6-foot-3 West Hancock sophomore, who was openly relieved once his club had managed to escape Saturday night with a hard-earned victory.

West Hancock’s 47-39 win over Illini West in the game that decided the 104th Hancock County Tournament title was anything but a piece of cake for the heavily favored Titans.

West Hancock (18-4) needed to score 10 of the game’s final 12 points to secure the championship that seemed to have been a foregone conclusion in the days leading up to the title contest. Both schools entered the game with 3-0 records in the week-long round robin event at Warsaw High School, but West Hancock had won its three starts with eye-opening offensive displays that saw the Titans averaging 87 points per game. West Hancock’s victories came by an average of 51.5 points.

“I think we definitely came out overconfident,” said 6-foot-9 junior center Cooper Knowles, who was held scoreless over the first two quarters before helping ignite the Titans’ second-half comeback in front of a crowd of 1,250. 

Illini West (15-7) led 22-14 at halftime on the strength of a deliberate approach on offense. The Chargers were the defending tournament champs, having beaten West Hancock 59-56 a year ago.

“I was pleased with the way we were able to control the tempo,” Illini West coach Blaize Kimmell said. “I also thought another key was our defense with the way it was able to make West Hancock force many of their shots and rush their threes.”

Titans coach Jeff Dahl agreed.

“We were taking our shots too quickly in the first half, but in the second half, we were able to get Cooper the ball more and showed better overall patience,” Dahl said.

Dahl said at halftime he had simply challenged his players to perform better. 

“I really don’t think that overconfidence was a factor,” he said. “We just didn’t do a good job of what we needed to do in the moment.” 

Froman led West Hancock with 16 points, getting 14 of that total after intermission when the Titans outscored Illini West 33-17.

“Illini West played a great game, but we just didn’t play like we should have in the first half,” Froman said.

Froman nailed nine of his points in the third quarter when West Hancock outscored Illini West 18-10 to tie the game at 32.

“Froman made a big impact,” Dahl said.

The Titans’ Gavin Grothaus, a 6-foot-2 senior, scored all 12 of his points in the second half. Grothaus and Froman combined for West Hancock’s final six points over the closing two minutes of the game.

Knowles scored all seven of his points and grabbed eight of his game-leading 10 rebounds in the second half.

“The slower pace in the first half was frustrating, but we had more energy in the second half and better inside play,” Knowles said.

Juniors Brennan Grotts (14), Ethan Carlisle (11) and Wesley Robertson (7) combined for 32 Illini West points. Grotts’ total was a career high. Robertson, who missed an earlier tournament date with a hand injury, was forced from Saturday’s contest with an ankle problem.

In Saturday night’s other game, Southeastern rallied to defeat West Prairie 63-53 in a matchup between two schools that had to yet win a game in the round robin. Southeastern outscored West Prairie 20-6 over the final eight minutes.

Griffin Tippey paced Southeastern with 22 points, but West Prairie’s Braden Coplan took game scoring honors with 32 points.

Selected to the all-tournament team were Froman, Robertson, Tippey, Coplan, Sawyer Allen of Unity and Lewis Siegfried of West Hancock. Knowles was named MVP of the tournament.