Patient Conant handles Hersey

Patience was a virtue for Conant on Tuesday night at Hersey.

The calm and controlled Cougars offense set the tone, and the Conant defense stepped up as well in a 46-23 Mid-Suburban League crossover victory in Arlington Heights.

"Tonight we let our offense help out our defense," said Cougars coach Tom McCormack. "Our kids were very physical and aggressive, and that's the way we want them to be, but it helps when you have the possession of the ball 70 percent of the time."

Things got so bad for Hersey, which didn't tally more than 7 points in any of the four quarters, that even the Huskies mascot was whistled for a delay of game.

"It was rough (tonight)," said Hersey guard Bobby Gehm. "We weren't prepared. They play good defense, and we weren't ready for them."

Both teams slogged through the mud early, feeling the effects of a long holiday layoff, but Conant junior Tim Gilhooly scored the last 5 points of the first half, including a buzzer-beating 3 to give the Cougars a 24-11 advantage at the break.

Conant (11-4)extended the lead in the third quarter behind the play of Tom Sotos (12 points, three 3-pointers) and Gilhooly (11 points), and the staunch defensive effort on 6-foot-9 Hersey senior Luke Fabrizius.

Fabrizius was held to 9 points on 2-of-14 shooting.

"You can't guard him with just one guy," said McCormack. "Tom Mahr and David Trinco had the principal rotation on him, and they did a whale of a job, along with the rest of the guys."

"We worked all week on shutting him down," said Conant senior Jeff Keegan.

Hersey (11-6) got a glimmer of hope by getting a couple of steals and scoring the first 4 points of the fourth quarter, but a bucket and a couple of free throws by Tony Rizzo (8 points) helped stem the tide.

Keegan and Mahr both scored 4 points for Conant and 6-foot-5 senior Chris Hoffman grabbed 6 rebounds.

Griffin Dwyer added 5 points for the Huskies.

"I thought we played pretty good defense," said Gehm, "but they showed a lot of patience on offense, and that set off our whole tempo."