Meadows hits turning point

Rolling Meadows' last Mid-Suburban East boys basketball game was not a memorable moment.

But a listless 61-48 loss to Buffalo Grove on Dec. 21 served as a wakeup call for the senior-dominated Mustangs.

''I've forgotten that night already,'' said MSL scoring leader Kyle Gaedele. ''It was definitely the low point of our season.''

The Mustangs are 3-2 since then -- with losses at the Elgin tournament to runner-up Wheaton North and defending champion Neuqua Valley and wins over Hoffman Estates, Elgin and Fremd.

And the losses weren't from a lack of effort. They had a chance to get within 3 points late in the third quarter despite an off shooting night against Wheaton North and had a 2-point lead on Neuqua Valley with six minutes to play.

''We won two against two good teams and there's no shame in losing to Neuqua and Wheaton North,'' said Meadows coach Kevin Katovich. ''We may have played our best game of the year against Elgin.

''We talked about keeping it going and building off our momentum at Elgin.''

Which the Mustangs hope to continue when they host rival Prospect on Saturday.

''We're right there,'' Gaedele said of making a second-half run. ''We're so close.''

And finishing the way they did in their fourth-quarter comeback against Fremd will be a key.

''At the beginning of the season we came out in the third quarters a little sluggish,'' said Meadows senior Ty Kirk. ''That happened with a ton of teams.

''In the third quarter now and fourth quarter we're doing what other teams did to us.''

Spring forward: The record warmth at the beginning of the week felt like baseball weather.

And the message from Fremd coach Bob Widlowski is that time will be here before everyone knows it and basketball will be over. So now is the time to get it going.

''It's January,'' Widlowski said after Tuesday's 50-43 loss at Meadows. ''Everybody has plenty of experience.''

And a win Saturday over Barrington could put the Vikings in a four-way tie for the MSL West lead if Schaumburg beat Conant and Palatine beat Hoffman Estates.

That's something few people would have expected before the season.

''We've got a lot of nice kids who have stepped up,'' Widlowski said. ''We're looking for more consistency offensively and defensively. That's the key to our success at this point.''

Senior Dan Bruno and sophomore Chris Klimek have stepped up to lead a balanced scoring attack. Fremd also has players such as junior Joe Depaolis go from limited action early to a more significant role off the bench.

And the Vikings have shown their capability with wins over Schaumburg, Hoffman and Waukegan.

''I'm pleased with some of the progress,'' Widlowski said. ''I'd like to take bigger steps, but we've improved dramatically.''

The force was with Luke: It was Luke Yanule's show with Schaumburg on Saturday in the Rock Falls Shootout.

The first-year assistant coach had no bench assistance as he took over against Rock Island with head coach Bob Williams forced to serve a one-game IHSA mandated suspension for receiving 2 technical fouls and an ejection in the Saxons' final game at Pontiac.

But Yanule, who played on Notre Dame's 1997 Elite Eight team and assisted Dennis Zelasko for nine years at his alma mater, brought the Saxons home a 66-61 winner in his head coaching debut.

''They were very focused,'' Yanule said. ''They were focused before we got on the bus, they were focused on the bus and focused as soon as they stepped on the floor.

''I'm very lucky to work for a guy like Bob Williams. We said, 'this is our program, he took it where it is and it's our job to sustain it and do what we do.'''

Senior Dan Slowik and junior Cully Payne said it was definitely different not having Williams on the sideline.

Coach Yanule stepped up real big for us and helped us,'' Payne said. ''Without coach Williams there it was a little weird.''

But the Saxons went out and tried to play the way they're expected on a regular basis.

''Coach tells us what we need to do every single day,'' Slowik said. ''Coach Yanule did a great job of helping us out today.

''We all wanted to get this win for him (coach Williams) and show we can play well when he's not here.''

Now the Saxons hope to play even better Saturday when they host defending West champion Conant.

''We really came out ready to go and fired up after what happened at Pontiac,'' Payne said of taking 32-16 and 43-26 leads on Rock Island. ''It was good to get off on a good note.''

Not a good roll: Sending downstate Washington to its first loss has been tempered a bit for Hersey. Now it takes heartbreaking losses in its last two games at Pekin and a 46-23 disaster against Conant into Saturday's showdown for first place in the East at BG.

''I said to Sean (assistant coach Gudaitis, who came over with Messer from Elk Grove), 'I don't think we've ever been held to 23 points,' '' Messer said. ''I hope we never are again.'

''That's three bumps in a row.''

Hersey had leads in overtime against Peoria Richwoods and late in regulation against Bartonville Limestone at Pekin. But Conant already had enough points at halftime (24) to win Tuesday's MSL crossover.

''The nice thing is they exposed our flaws, and those need to be exposed to be fixed,'' Messer said of Conant. ''Washington was a good win but they're a guard-led team, so we should beat them in my mind if we handle pressure and take advantage of our height.

''We should have won the Richwoods game. We didn't have a huge lead but we had control of the game.''

This was Messer's first trip to the Pekin tourney as a head coach after going there as a Hersey player in 1983 and 1984. He said he plans to take it year-to-year but will return next season.

''I like the format and I like seeing completely different teams,'' Messer said. ''With this group of kids it was a positive situation to be around them.''

Honoring Molitor: Palatine will celebrate the head coaching career of retiring Ed Molitor before its final regular-season Friday night home game on Feb. 8 with Barrington.

Molitor, who has been Palatine's head coach for 32 years and won his 500th career game in the last game of York's holiday tournament, will be honored at approximately 7 p.m., or immediately following the sophomore game in the Palatine gym.

After the varsity game, a one-hour reception will be held for students, players and friends of the program in the school cafeteria. At approximately 10 p.m., everyone is welcome to attend a second reception downstairs at Emmet's Restaurant at 110 N. Brockway in downtown Palatine.

For more information contact Matt May at mmay@d211.org or call (847) 755-1703.

Sears showdown: The return of Northwestern-bound Nick Fruendt to Batavia from mono adds some luster to next Saturday's 11th annual Meijer High School Hoops Showdown triple-header at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates.

Batavia, which beat West Aurora at the buzzer last year, gets a big challenge against Marshall and standout Ryan Hare at 8:30 p.m.

Jacobs, led by Northern Iowa-bound guard John Moran and junior standout Conrad Krutwig, faces Fenwick and junior star Xavier Humphrey at 6:30 p.m.

The event starts at 4:30 p.m. with a girls matchup of Warren and Stanford-bound Sarah Boothe also facing powerful Fenwick and sophomore sensation Katelyn Payne.

Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students and are available at the box office.

Tip-ins: Buffalo Grove will hold its alumni night Saturday against Hersey. Former Bison players should meet in the school's community room before the game and will be recognized at halftime … Former Rolling Meadows teammates faced off as head coaches for the first time when Glenn Olson and Maine East beat Fritz Wulfram and Niles West 56-52 on Jan. 4. Wulfram and Olson will also have homecomings when Niles West (Feb. 2) and Maine East (Feb. 5) visit Meadows ... Schaumburg is at Hoffman Estates at 7:30 p.m. next Friday while everyone else in the MSL begins second-half play Saturday ... And in a schedule quirk, Schaumburg doesn't play again until Feb. 1 while Hoffman plays four games next weekend (two Saturday and two on Jan. 21) at the Rockton Hononegah shootout ... It's obviously not the same, but the Meadows' football-basketball players will get a rematch of sorts when Lake Zurich visits at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Lake Zurich's Class 7A football title included a tough 10-7 second-round win over Meadows ... Class 3A and 4A sectional seeding meetings are Feb. 6.