Hersey gains momentum with big offensive display

Hersey's girls basketball team works on plenty of different offenses in practice.

"Like a million," joked Huskies senior center Maggie Berigan.

In one of their highest scoring halves of the seasons, the state-ranked Huskies got to work on them all.

They ran out to a 37-12 lead at intermission en route to a 70-20 victory over visiting Elk Grove at the Ken Carter Gymnasium on Thursday night in Arlington Heights.

The victory raised Hersey's record to 14-3 and 3-1 in the Mid-Suburban East, where it trails Rolling Meadows and Buffalo Grove (both 3-0) by a half game.

"We did a nice job of running our offenses," said Huskies coach Mary Fendley, whose No. 9 ranked team (14-3) faces Class 4A No. 3 New Trier (also 14-3) at 1 p.m. Saturday as part of Fremd's Chicagoland Invitational Classic.

"We almost went the whole first half without repeating an offense," Fendley added. "It's nice to be able to run them in a game and not just practice."

Running was the key as the Huskies capitalized on numerous fast breaks.

"They like to steal the ball (Erin McGrath had a team-high 4) and push it up the floor," said Grens senior Sarah Pauscher, who scored all 8 of the Grenadiers' field goals and finished with 18 points. "Obviously we just didn't do a good a job against that. They have quite a bit of talent."

Leading the talented Huskies was junior guard Claire Gritt, who tossed home a game-high 19 points, including a pair of 3-pointers.

"It was nice at the beginning of the game to be able to work on different offenses," Gritt said. "And it was great to get everyone into the game and that they were able to get reps in the offense. That will only help when they have to come in later in the season."

Gritt also pulled down 10 rebounds while classmates Kelly Weyhrich (11 points) and Gina Miklasz (10 points) each handed out 7 assists.

Pauscher, who is committed to play softball at Saint Leo University in Florida, had all but 1 of the Grens' points until Carly Crothers hit a free throw in the fourth quarter.

Teammate Abbey Sloan also had a free throw in the first quarter.

Hersey put 10 players in the scoring column, including Maesyn Benjamin (7 points), Katie McGrath (7), Berigan (6), Erin McGrath (4), Claire Niemczak (2), Carly Cooper (2) and Delaney Parker (2).

The Huskies will be back in the gym preparing for a New Trier team (14-3) that won the Dundee-Crown Charger Classic while the Huskies were an impressive fourth at the Montini tournament.

"It was helpful that we were able to work on things in this game," Berigan said. "Now we have to go out and have a real good practice (today)."