A freshman stole the show on senior night.
The Homewood-Flossmoor girls basketball team celebrated its five 12th graders before beating Lincoln-Way West 59-43 in the Feb. 11 regular-season finale. But it was ninth grader Zoey Ratliff who was the story.
The Warriors played a 2-3 zone, leaving the wings open. Vikings coach Anthony Smith kept shouting to his shooters “Get your feet set.” He wanted LWW to pay for giving H-F space to shoot.
Ratliff did just that, hitting her first three 3-pointers and eventually making six of nine attempts to finish with a personal-best 18 points.
“I had a lot of confidence in my shots tonight. Some games I make a few of them but today I just felt like I had to come out and do my best for the seniors,” Ratliff said. “We practiced a lot on that (shot from the wing) so I knew I had to execute in the game for my coach.”
Smith said Ratliff is mature for a freshman. Her older brothers played the game, so she is more experienced on the hardwood than most her age.
“Zoey’s season’s going well. I’m happy with her. She plays hard. She goes at everything hard,” Smith said. “Some (freshmen) I’ve got to get on, still, but she brings her lunch bucket. I got to get on her about maybe a weak pass or something but effort-wise or going hard or trying to win, she’s a competitive kid so she’s trying to win.”
The team worked the ball around the perimeter patiently against LWW, looking for an opening to shoot or drive. Some H-F possessions took more than a minute off the clock.
In the end, it was often Ratliff with an open look.
“I think they did a great job of finding Zoey,” Smith said. “If we hit (Ratliff) with passes like that, Zoey can make a lot of shots. That’s a good thing.”
The Vikings also got 14 points from Aunyai Deere and 13 from Jenesis Moore. Deere guarded Molly Finn for most of the night, holding the Warriors scorer to only three points.
H-F played the Warriors in New Lenox on Jan. 16. That game was a 43-41 Lincoln-Way West win. The Vikings were in control for most of the night in the rematch, though, leading by as many as 20.
The Vikings (22-9, 11-3) finish the regular season second in the SouthWest Suburban Conference. They gave themselves a chance by splitting the season series with Lockport, but the Porters beat Sandburg 40-27 on the same night to win the league.
“We played a lot better today,” Smith said with a laugh. “We shot the ball a lot better today. We moved the ball better today. We defended better today.”
The typically sharpshooting Warriors were held to just three made 3-pointers, including one that came late in the game when the result was already well in-hand. Smith said that was a key to the Feb. 11 win.
That’s the sort of effort Smith said he hopes to see from his team down the stretch. The aim is to make a deep playoff run.
H-F opens the postseason Feb. 18 with Joliet West in its home regional.
“We want to be the best. We want to make a run in the playoffs so it starts now,” Ratliff said. “We can definitely fix some things and do better in some aspects but I think if we can keep playing hard that we can go far.”
