Homewood-Flossmoor senior Christian Meeks doesn’t come off the court too often.

It’s a rare sight, something that happens once in a blue moon. No matter how fast the game is flowing, Meeks wants to go as hard as he possibly can for the entire night.

“My shot may not be falling, but the one thing I can control is how hard I play,” Meeks said. “I want to dominate.

“It’s just knowing in the back of my mind that I need to do this to win. And not just win, but win by a big margin.”

Meeks took care of that task Friday night. The 6-foot-6 forward scored 26 points and grabbed five rebounds for the Vikings in a resounding 79-51 SouthWest Suburban Blue victory over Lincoln-Way East.

Even more impressive was the fact Meeks did so despite not taking a breather until the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

“It makes my job a lot easier,” H-F coach Marc Condotti said. “He’s our leader, he’s our best player and he shows up when we need him most. He did that tonight.”

Meeks showed up early and often Friday for the Vikings (18-7, 5-2).

After the Griffins (9-16, 2-5) grabbed a 10-4 lead in the first quarter, Meeks responded with five points in the span of a minute.

He helped erase a seven-point deficit in the second quarter, converting a fast-break

layup and two free throws to give H-F a 34-31 edge at halftime.

One might think Meeks would be exhausted after never subbing out in the first half. As it turns out, he was just getting started.

Meeks brought the home crowd to life with an emphatic dunk to open the third quarter. He powered through three defenders for a layup a few plays later, hardly looking like someone who had been playing for 20 straight minutes.

Junior guard Nashawn Holmes then fed Meeks for a pair of alley-oop dunks as the quarter ended.

Holmes finished with 17 points, 11 coming in the third quarter. His offensive outburst helped the Vikings unleash a 19-3 scoring spurt.

“The game was close and I had zero points in the first quarter,” Holmes said. “I knew if I didn’t step up, it was going to be bad. They needed me, so I just cranked it up.”

Meeks added one more alley-oop dunk in the fourth before finally taking a seat with 3:25 left in the game.

It seems a 23-point lead in the closing minutes was enough to convince him to squeeze in a break.

“It comes from love of the game,” Meeks said of his nonstop energy. “I just love basketball. I just want to be out there on the court at all times.”

Senior guard Joshua Ellison led Lincoln-Way East with 12 points, while junior forward Kyle Olagbegi added 11.

“We’re a young team and we have problems playing four quarters,” Griffins coach Rich Kolimas said. “I don’t know what it was. We stopped being aggressive.

“We’ve played a tough schedule and we’re in ballgames, but we can’t sustain it.”

While sustaining energy was an issue for Lincoln-Way East, Meeks had no such problems.

He’s continually driven not just by a love of the game but also by what he feels was a lack of preseason attention given to his team.

“At the beginning of the season, no one was talking about us,” Meeks said. “We weren’t on anyone’s rankings. No one was really talking about the Vikings.

“I just wanted to use that. It drives me and the entire team to go out there and play hard.”

Casey Drottar is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.