Rolling Meadows surprises Hersey

Rolling Meadows' boys basketball team knocked Hersey back into a first-place tie in the Mid-Suburban East with Buffalo Grove after a dominant 51-34 victory over the Huskies at Ken Carter Gym on Saturday.

The Mustangs (9-7, 3-3) trailed only once and were in charge once Ty Kirk exploded for 10 of his 12 points in the first quarter.

"We were moving the ball around and playing as a team," said Kirk, whose 12 first-half points were matched by Kyle Gaedele's 12 (of his team high 14) in the second half. "We worked the ball to get it inside. When we just jack up 3s, we don't do as well."

Kirk made a basket and hit a pair of 3-pointers for Meadows' first 8 points and then scored a basket with 1:09 left in the quarter to give the visitors a 13-5 lead. Will Trunk hit a 3 just before the buzzer, the first of 2 buzzer beaters by the Mustangs, to give Meadows a 16-7 lead that was never threatened.

"I thought that was the best all-round performance in my six years at Rolling Meadows," said Mustangs coach Kevin Katovich. "And there have been some great games along the way; that's how impressed I was with the way we played."

The patient Mustangs led 25-10 at halftime and 41-19 after three. Meadows' also did the job against Hersey's top scorers Luke Fabrizius (2 points) and Griffin Dwyer (4 of his 15 in the first three quarters).

Hersey (12-7, 5-1) coach Steve Messer said stopping his team's offensive leaders led to scoring droughts of 3:17, 4:41 and 3:48.

"Their physical pressure stopped us," Messer said. "They played more physical than in the first game, and they got almost every loose ball."

"Ben (Sabal) did a great job against Luke," Katovich said. "Those two have been going at each other since they were kids.

"The main thing we wanted to do was limit his touches," Katovich said. "We also talked about containing Dwyer."

"We played really good defense," Kirk said. "They scored 66 against us the first time. That was the highest (allowed) all year.

"We've beaten the best team in the East and the best in the West (Hoffman Estates)," Kirk said.

"We're really starting to play good basketball," Katovich said.