Hersey's turn to come back

Something you don't see too often in Mid-Suburban League boys basketball these days is Buffalo Grove letting a late-game lead slip away. Especially at home.

Until Saturday night.

Hersey center Luke Fabrizius and guard Griffin Dwyer combined for 18 fourth-quarter points and led the visiting Huskies (12, 5-0) to a 53-44 come-from-behind win that gave them sole possession of first place in the Mid-Suburban East at the halfway mark.

Hersey managed to overcome something a lot of other teams haven't this season: BG's relentless ball pressure that generally forces numerous turnovers.

Hersey coach Steve Messer knew exactly where to look for that correction, especially after Tuesday's fiasco when the Huskies only scored 23 points in a loss to Conant.

Messer credited assistant coach Chad Freeman for preparing Hersey for BG's pressure.

"The difference was the guards (Dwyer, Steve Nelson, Demitry Velikov and Bobby Gehm) handling the pressure," Messer said.

And instead, it was BG making uncharacteristic mistakes down the stretch and struggling with its shooting after having a 35-28 lead late in the third quarter. Hersey not only withstood BG's pressure but applied its own.

"We said, 'We've got to get a stop right now,' " after falling behind, said the 6-foot-9, Dayton-bound Fabrizius. And they did in every way with contributions from everyone. "Dimitri (Velikov) took a couple of huge charges," Fabrizius said of one of his team's unsung heroes.

Hersey took command after Fabrizius closed the third quarter with a 3 and Dwyer opened it with two 3-pointers when BG played zone on consecutive out-of-bounds plays that gave him good looks. The game teetered back and forth as BG's Paul Timko and Mike Ricciardi traded hoops with Dwyer and Fabrizius, but only for so long.

Steve Nelson converted a pair of free throws after BG star Brian DeSimone's fourth personal foul and Fabrizius put Hersey ahead for good with his second putback of the quarter. Hersey scored the game's final 12 points against a shorter, foul-plagued BG squad.

BG coach Ryan O'Connor felt "the difference in the game was Dwyer," whose 3-pointers destroyed BG, coupled with BG's inability to generate turnovers and easy points off them.

"That was certainly a big part of our game," said O'Connor. "We were not able to exploit other areas of the floor," in losing for the third time in their last four.

"It's not very indicative of how we usually finish games," said O'Connor, whose team shot 2 of 12 from the floor in the fourth quarter and fell to 12-4 overall, 4-1 in the division.

For Hersey, it was indicative of the type of play the Huskies know they're capable of.

"We're definitely coming along," said Fabrizius, who seemed to play even more effectively after a second-quarter leg injury that had him out of the game for several minutes.