Hoffman holds most important statistical edge

Hoffman Estates 48, McHenry East 41

Hoffman Estates seemed to be headed to a tougher than it appeared season-opening boys basketball victory Monday night in the Crystal Lake Central Coaches vs. Cancer Thanksgiving Tourney.

Then it became a tougher than it should have been 48-41 victory over McHenry as the Hawks had 15-point lead cut to five in the final four minutes.

"We had a lot of statistics we can improve on, but the one we managed to hang on to is the win," said coach Bill Wandro after starting his 18th season at Hoffman with his 299th career victory. "Our rebounding (27-24 deficit) wasn't where we needed it to be, the number of turnovers (19) was too high and our shooting percentage, especially in close (28.6 inside the 3-point arc) was pretty bad."

But it was hardly a total loss other than the final score, either. Hoffman was 7-for-14 beyond the arc as senior Luke Mead went 4-for-5 en route to a game-high 16 points and 3 assists.

Junior Kevin Tiongson (11 points) sandwiched his two 3s around one by Mead to turn a 23-22 deficit into a 30-25 lead.

The inside play of seniors Chris Hall (9 points, 4 rebounds) and Tom Dombrowski and junior Brandon Fischer (9 points, 5 rebounds) limited McHenry to 36.5 percent shooting (15-for-41). Hall's 3-point play put Hoffman up 44-29 with 4:51 left.

Hoffman committed 9 fourth-quarter turnovers and a foul away from the ball as Brett Palmer hit a 3 set up a Jimmy Preston jumper that got McHenry within 46-41 with 17 seconds left.

But Mead and junior Ben Cho split free throws and Hoffman survived with Kemill Long out and Dombrowski and Hall not starting per team rules and 6-foot-7 Lance Vesper out with a broken nose.

"What this group is searching for is a little bit of an identity," Wandro said. "A lot of guys were getting varsity time for the first time and they're really close to doing things where we want them to."