Elijah Daugherty and Christian Cummings often looked like the two best players on the floor Saturday night. Isaiah Johnson watched from the bench as the All-Area Boys scored a rare 110-107 win over the NIC-10 in the annual Rising Stars Classic.
Why now? Why in a senior boys basketball all-star game at Rock Valley College but not in the regional finals against Winnebago when things really counted?
Except Daugherty, Cummings and Johnson don’t see it that way. They just enjoyed one last basketball game together.
“It felt amazing being out there and being able to showcase myself one last time in a Rockford Christian jersey,” said Daugherty, who scored 30 points to earn game MVP honors.
Daugherty had only eight points in a season-ending 57-50 loss in the regional finals to a Winnebago team that finished the season with a losing record. Rockford Christian was 16-0 when Daugherty hurt his wrist in Pecatonica’s MLK tourney and then went 7-8 the rest of the year — including 1-4 after Cummings also hurt his hand in a win over Byron.
“We could have been playing longer,” said Johnson, who is retiring after 11 seasons as Rockford Christian coach, but worked one last game as the Area Boys assistant under Bobby Heisler on Saturday. “We had the talent to be playing longer. But basketball in March, you never know what happens.”
Cummings scored 31 in that loss to Winnebago, so his injury didn’t slow him. Daugherty, who missed several games when he was first hurt, didn’t blame his injury either.
“I am not going to blame it on that,” Daugherty said. “We lost and I played bad. It was just one of those things.”
It wasn’t what Rockford Christian had grown used to. And not just that game. The whole second half of the season. The two 5-10 guards are the only teammates in Illinois history who both scored 2,000 points in high school. They led the Royal Lions to 98 wins in their four seasons. For three and a half years, they had looked the way they did Saturday night, when Daugherty scored 30 points and Cummings was second on the team with 17. Pecatonica’s Brody Black added 15 and South Beloit All-Stater Ross Robertson 14.
“I love to see him play,” Cummings said of Daugherty. “His 30-ball tonight was nothing new. It’s what he does.
“On this journey, we came in knowing we were going to dominate together. Being able to have him by my side to do so one last time was amazing. It’s always amazing playing with my brother, my dog, Elijah. We’re a duo. And to have our coach by our side, I am very grateful.”
The All-Area Boys seemed in total control after a 17-0 run put them ahead 81-68. But East’s Sterling Hoarde (30 points) and Guilford’s Jaden Webster (18) hit back-to-back late 3s and Webster heaved in a basket from three-quarters court after the ...
