Hersey can't catch Loyola
It's never easy to dig out of a 14-0 hole.
Hersey's girls basketball team gave it a good try in Wednesday's matinee at the Ken Carter Gymnasium in Arlington Heights.
However, visiting Loyola showed why it's won 10 of its last 12 games as the Ramblers prevailed for a 50-36 triumph in the nonconference contest.
Trailing by as much as 22-6, the Huskies climbed to within 7 points early in the third quarter (27-20).
Loyola (14-5), though, responded with an 8-0 run and the Ramblers never again let the Huskies (5-11) within double digits.
"Hersey keeps coming at you," said Ramblers coach Tanya Johnson, who won back-to-back state titles at the Wilmette school in 1997 and 1998. "They just play. The second you relax, they seem to find an opening and burn you."
Hersey senior Emma Kuhns caught fire early in the third quarter, scoring three consecutive inside buckets, all on feeds from sophomore Julia Fredian.
But it was Kuhns' defensive prowess that caught the eye of Huskies coach Mary Fendley.
A 6-foot forward, Kuhns was often responsible for 6-foot-1 Wisconsin recruit Ashley Thompson (14 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists).
"Emma's defense was very good," Fendley said. "She did a good job keeping Thompson off the block which is very tough. I thought she did the best job at that for us."
Kuhns finished with 8 points and a team-high 4 rebounds.
"Our defense was pretty good, but we started out too slow," Kuhns said. "Loyola is a tough team but we have to come out and play strong for four quarters, instead of two or three."
Fredian collected 4 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists.
"Julia has rally been playing well lately," Fendley added. "She's young, very athletic and if anything, too unselfish. She really has a knack for finding the open person. Every game I get more and more comfortable with the ball in her hands."
Junior Meghan Holy scored 8 of Loyola's 14 points in the first quarter. The Ramblers led 14-0 before a free throw by Fredian put the Huskies on the board with 12 seconds left in the period.
Sarah Stoltzner (6:36) and Maggie Tunney (5:26) scored Hersey's first 2 field goals of the game in the second quarter.
"We have to do better than 1 point in the first quarter," said Huskies junior guard Kelly Rogowski, whose tossed in 9 points with two 3-pointers. "We came out a little intimidated at the start. Our tallest player was 5-foot-9 and they have almost four 6-footers. Their defense was all over us and we didn't do a good job moving on offense and getting open."
The Huskies improved as the game progressed and were outscored by only 1 point the next three quarters.
"We've had a lot of opportunities to play some of the better teams in the state," Fendley said. "It was certainly looking like it could be a very lopsided game at the start but the kids turned it into a tough game. I commend the kids for continuing to play tough and do the things we asked. It's tough to match up with a team like Loyola for 32 minutes but we have shown we can do it throughout the season. When you're as young as we are, we just want to find positive things like that."
Freshman Megan Rogowski led Hersey with 11 points while sophomore guard Audrey Gaughan and Holy also added 11 for Loyola.
"It was a typical first game after the holidays," Johnson. "It's not what you would call razor sharp. It was a good chance for us to play before our first conference game with St. Ignatius on Friday."
"We're happy we've been able to play ranked teams like Loyola and the teams in our winner's bracket at the Wheaton North tournament (last week)," Kelly Rogowski added. "We want to show that we can stick with these kind of teams."
Marist 68, St. Viator 38: The Lions just couldn't keep pace with Marist in an afternoon East Suburban Catholic Contest.
St. Viator (2-3, 8-10) spread out its offense, with Tori Callero leading with 9 points.
Jenny Muench (6 points), Kelly Hendricks (5), Susan Hohenadel (4), Katie Orlowski (4) and Christine Muench (4) all contributed to the Lions' effort.