It all adds up to victory for Hogen, Hersey

For most of the fourth quarter, Maggie Hogen sat on the Hersey bench doing stats for her teammates on the floor.

Just moments earlier, Hogen was putting up the biggest scoring stats of her career.

The senior forward scored a personal-high of 19 points as Hersey got off to a running start in the Season’s End tournament with a 71-39 victory over Riverside-Brookfield at the Ken Carter Gymnasium in Arlington Heights.

Hogen (10 rebounds, 5 steals) wasn’t the only Huskie celebrating a career-high. So was her teammate Ashley Raulli, who tossed in 14 points with 7 rebounds, 5 on the offensive end.

And as usual, senior point guard Jen Hall was superbly running the show, collecting 16 points and a pair of 3-pointers in the second half which helped the Huskies pull away to their fourth straight win.

“That was fun,” Hogen said of her paperwork on the sidelines once coach Mary Fendley called on her reserves to close out the game. “But it was kind of hard because I hadn’t done it in a while.”

The Huskies’ pressure defense made things hard on the Bulldogs (10-4, 3-1 in the Metro Suburban Conference).

Hersey (9-8) forced numerous turnovers in the first four minutes and led 12-2 after 4 straight free throws by Hall following a steal and layup by senior guard Corinne Busby (8 points, 5 steals).

“They were tough,” said Riverside-Brookfield coach Dallas Till. “They came out hot and we didn’t respond. I don’t think our girls were ready for their pressure.

“We had 8 turnovers in the first four minutes of the game. No. 42 (Hogen) is a nice player and they got it down low to her. And they hit their free throws. They are a strong club. I take my hat off to them.”

The Huskies (9-8) made 16 of 20 free throws, led by Hall who was 6-for-6.

“I think our ball movement was better than it has been,” Fendley said. “And I thought we were good defensively the whole game, except for one stretch in the second quarter.

“Maggie did a good job giving a good target for the ball and the kids made nice passes inside to her. And Ashley had never been in double digits before getting her career-high in this game.”

Sophomore Renee Poulos added 5 points for Hersey, which also scoring from Meg Cerniglia (3 points) and Casey Weyhrich, who had 6 points with 3 steals.

“It’s great to get over .500,” Hogen said. “We passed the ball really well. We ran our offense well and had a lot of good screens.”