St. Viator's growth spurt comes at Hersey's expense
St. Viator doesn't like reruns.
After blowing a big halftime lead in a loss to Lake Park on Tuesday, the Lions' boys basketball team made sure history didn't repeat itself on Saturday.
Viator raced to 13-point advantage over host Hersey, then watched as the Huskies rallied late in the game. But the Lions nailed 6 fee throws down the stretch and had a huge breakaway jam by Addison Lubert as Viator beat rival Hersey 54-51 in a nonconference matchup.
"We are a young and inexperienced team," St. Viator coach Quin Hayes said. "We start two sophomores and our seniors did not play much last year, so we are learning how to win games.
"A game like this is good for us. It will pay huge dividends for us in March."
The Lions (5-10) look like they are fast learners. After the disappointing loss to Lake Park earlier this past week, Hayes had his team working hard in practice.
"The coaches were really hard on us this week in practice," said Marc Clark, who led the Lions with 12 points. "We were going to make sure that what happened earlier this week wouldn't happen again."
Clark got the Lions off to a quick start. He scored 8 points in the first quarter thanks to a pair of 3s as Viator raced to a 16-4 lead after the first quarter.
Viator continued the pace and led 22-7 on a basket by Jeremiah Hernandez with just over three minutes left in the fist half and took a 26-13 lead into the locker room at the half.
Hersey (6-8), which was coming off a huge win over Rolling Meadows on Friday, woke up in the second half.
The Huskies scored the first 7 points of the second half to close to 26-20 with 5:21 left in the third quarter on a 3 by Joey Coffaro.
St. Viator appeared to shrug off the Hersey charge. A 3 from Peter Lambesis ignited a 9-2 run by the Lions as they opened up 35-22 lead with 1:58 left in the third quarter.
Eddie Mleko hit a pair of free throws and a basket while Coffaro, who had been relatively quiet to that point, nailed a pair of 3s and suddenly Hersey was within 35-31 with 7:33 to play.
"We were very flat early," Hersey coach Steve Messer said. "I thought we were inspired and desperate to rebound in the second half."
Leading 41-35 with 4:35 to play, Viator got some breathing room thanks to a short jumper by J.R. Sison and a 3 by Lambesis that banked off the backboard as the Lions led 46-35 with 2:39 to play.
Hersey was not done. With Coffaro leading the way, the Huskies forced three consecutive turnovers and scored off of each of them to cut the lead to 46-41 with 1:18 to left.
Viator then hit all 6 of its free throws, with Cison knocking down 4 of them. And Lubert got a dunk thanks to a sweet fullcourt pass by Hernandez.
"We really wanted to win this one, especially after the way practice went this week," said Lubert, who finished with 9 points, 14 rebounds and 4 blocks. "It was tough in the second half. But it was free throws that helped us down the line."
The Lions, who were 13-of-14 for the game from the foul line, got 11 points from Hernandez and 10 each from Lambesis and Cison.
Coffaro led Hersey with 22 points, 11 of which came in the fourth quarter. Mleko had 11 points and 6 rebounds while Ken Hasley added 6 points.