With senior guard Nick Holmes leading the way in the fourth quarter of Friday's championship game, Homewood-Flossmoor finally got the offensive outburst it had been waiting for the entire Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic.

Unfortunately for the Vikings, it came too late.

H-F scored 28 points in the fourth quarter to mount a furious rally, but came up short in a 67-62 loss to Bolingbrook.

“The whole tournament, I've been passive,” Holmes said. “The whole team was hesitant. Coach (Marc Condotti) told us to stop thinking so much and just play. We showed we can hang with those guys. We just got off to a slow start.”

Holmes finished with 19 points and Jeffrey Boyd had 18 for H-F (10-2), which lost the tournament's championship game for the second straight year.

Nebraska recruit Nana Akenten led Bolingbrook (10-0) with 23 points and 13 rebounds.

Akenten announced his presence early, burying three 3-pointers in the first three minutes. H-F faced an uphill battle from there. The Vikings trailed 21-12 after a quarter, 32-20 at halftime and 56-34 after three.

“We knew (Akenten) was going to get his,” Holmes said. “We were trying to guard him tough. But some of those shots, if he's going to hit them from that far out, you've got to give him that. We needed to do a better job rebounding early.”

Indeed, Malik Binns (14 points, 8 rebounds) also hurt the Vikings with a strong performance on the offensive glass.

In the fourth quarter, though, everything clicked for H-F. Leroy Patterson came off the bench to score seven of his nine points while Holmes scored 11, knocking down a trio of 3-pointers.

Patterson's three-point play got H-F within 63-55 with 3:05 to go, but Joseph Yesufu answered with a three-point play of his own for Bolingbrook.

Boyd responded with five quick points and Patterson cut the deficit to 66-62 with 26 seconds to go. But that was as close as the Vikings could get.

“It's tough to lose the championship game again, but we learned a lot from this game,” Holmes said. “We know what we can do. We really should have won this game.”

Kaleb Thornton added 14 points for Bolingbrook, while Jarrett Tribble had seven points and six rebounds for H-F.

Condotti hopes the Vikings reached a turning point despite the loss.

“Sometimes you win and it feels like you lost, like (Thursday night's semifinal win over DePaul Prep),” Condotti said. “Sometimes you lose and it feels like you won. This kind of feels like that. We learned two things: Bolingbrook is a very good team, and we have guys who play with a lot of heart and poise.”

Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown. Freelancer Josh Krockey contributed.