Evanston 50, Hersey 38

Hersey senior Luke Fabrizius was only 5 years old the last time a Huskies team advanced to a sectional final.

So although Hersey's season came to an end Friday at the hands of No. 1 seed Evanston, the Huskies weren't hanging their heads.

"We shared special moments winning the regional. The last one we won was in '95 and I'm going to remember this forever," Fabrizius said after scoring 16 points and blocking 5 shots. "Some of my best friends are on this team. We've been close since first grade. We all knew each other and got along. It's been a fun ride."

Hersey had quite a playoff run after limping into the postseason. Losers in 9 of their final 12 regular-season games, the seventh-seeded Huskies defeated Wheeling and upset second-seeded New Trier to capture the Wheeling regional title.

Hersey then beat a tough Maine East squad to advance to Friday's Evanston sectional final, before losing to the Wildkits 50-38.

"We pulled together," said junior Kyle Mengarelli (8 points). "Coming into the playoffs, we knew that we hadn't peaked yet. We were playing our best ball at the end of the season, which is when you need to play it."

Hersey (17-13) had 7 turnovers in the first quarter and trailed 18-10. Down 11 midway through the second quarter, the Huskies used 9-4 run to gain some momentum and ended the half trailing 27-21.

That momentum completely disappeared in the third quarter as Hersey went 0-for-16 from the field while Evanston (28-3) ripped off 11 straight points. Mengarelli's free throws with 41 seconds left proved to be the Huskies only points of the period as they trailed 38-23.

Hersey scored 9 straight points early in the fourth quarter to make it an 8-point game, but could never get any closer.

"Some of the shots weren't falling," Huskies senior Griffin Dwyer (4 points, 2 assists) said. "But we went out with our hearts on the floor."

Hersey shot 12-of-51 for the game, including 4-of-21 on 3-pointers. The Huskies also hurt themselves by missing 8 layups.

"I think it was just a rough night for everyone," Mengarelli said. "We were missing breakaway layups, open jump shots and just shots that we should be hitting."

Michael Mueller had 6 points and 4 rebounds for Hersey, while sophomore Steven Nelson added 5 rebounds.

While first-year Huskies coach Steve Messer declined to talk about his teams' success in a historical context, he was able to identify what made the 2007-08 squad so special.

"They are a talented group, they work well together and they like each other," Messer said. "What I really liked to see was every day they came to work and got better. They just soaked up whatever we taught them and went with it.

"There were some hard moments there. When we were winning games right out of the gate, it's easy to listen to coach because things are going well. We started losing and they still stayed together. They kept working and improved a ton."