A community celebration is set for 2 p.m. Sunday honoring the Normal Community boys basketball team and its second-place finish in the Class 4A finals.
The Ironmen fell, 60-48, to Homewood-Flossmoor in the Class 4A title game Saturday night. There were lots of NCHS fans sporting orange and black in the noisy crowd at State Farm Center in Champaign. Unit 5 and the rest of Bloomington-Normal rallied around the Ironmen in recent days as they tried to win Normal Community's first hoops state title.
“We had so much fun this year,” said NCHS head coach Dave Witzig. “It was just a great run for Normal Community and the feeder schools and the kids around there. Like I told the guys, we proved that Normal Community kids can play for state championships. We were right there, but Homewood-Flossmoor played a great game.”
The Normal Community players said they appreciated the community's support.
“It’s amazing,” said star center Jaheem Webber, one of the top high school players in Illinois, who’s headed to Wright State next year. “We had a lot of support from the community the past couple weeks, from our school to the whole town. We drove past a couple elementary schools and a bunch of kids were out for us, and you hear about kids trying to come (to our games). It’s just really fun to have the community back you up like that. It’s awesome.”
Braylon Roman led the way for the Ironmen on Saturday with 18 points, with Noah Cleveland adding 13. Webber struggled with 2 points.
Homewood-Flossmoor led almost the entire game, stretching the lead to 16 points at one point in the third quarter.
The Ironmen finished the season 32-6 and runner-up in Class 4A, which includes the largest high schools in Illinois.
Saturday's game was head coach Dave Witzig’s third trip to the state finals with the Ironmen. They also fell short in 2015 and 2011.
“We ran into the best team in the state tonight,” Witzig said.
