Wheeling quickly resets, goes on to stop Rolling Meadows

Four minutes into Wheeling's boys basketball game against Rolling Meadows on Friday night, Wildcats coach Michael O'Keeffe had to take a quick timeout.

Meadows led 7-0 at that point. Wheeling not only seemed completely out of synch, the Wildcats also had barely gotten up 2 shots at the basket to go along with a slew of turnovers.

Something, O'Keeffe knew, had to change.

"The last two days in practice were 95 percent about offense," said the coach. "We were confident, but the start of the game wasn't going according to plan. I just had to reinforce the game plan to the guys, and then everything started to click."

"It was a slow start - we had no energy," said Wildcats senior guard TJ Best. "We we're playing selfish basketball pretty much all through the first half. If we wanted to win, we knew we had to get it together."

The timeout worked just like O'Keeffe planned, as Wheeling came out with a new focus and completely turned the tide in a 56-48 Mid-Suburban East win over visiting Meadows.

Best led Wheeling with a game-high 23 points and hit some clutch shots down the stretch.

"We had a good start," said Mustangs coach Kevin Katovich. "We were doing everything we talked about doing. We just stopped in the second half and that's disappointing to say the least.

"You have to tip your hat to Wheeling. It seemed like they wanted to win the game more than we did."

Led by 8 first-half points, all in the paint, from 6-5 senior Jared Murphy, Meadows took a 22-18 lead into the second half.

Then Wheeling came alive in the third quarter with six straight 3s - 2 by Jalen Dennis, 2 from Deshon Jacobs and 1 apiece by Best and Johnny Kappel - to take a big lead.

"We just decided that we were going to start running our offense all the way through," said Best, "and take what they (Meadows) were giving us."

The Mustangs were able to rally in the fourth quarter and got within 46-45 when Jack Schoessling (16 points) sank 2 free throws.

Then it was Best to the rescue for the home team. TJ hit a long 3, then 2 foul shots to extend the Wheeling advantage.

Best and Dennis put the game out of reach with free throws in the final,minute.

"We were sharing the ball," said O'Keeffe. "We hit some shots, got the ball in the paint and were crashing the offensive boards, which is something we haven't done lately."

"It was nice to see the guys put all the pieces together."

Dennis finished with 14 points for the Wildcats to go along with 5 rebounds, while Jacobs scored 12.

Murphy had 14 points for Meadows, but Katovich lamented his team's second-half letdown.

"Lately we've been holding our opponents under 45 points," said Katovich. "We had a complete mental breakdown tonight in the second half. That's the most disappointing thing about tonight's game."