Hersey beats Elk Grove

Hersey and coach Steve Messer shook up the lineup a bit on Thursday and the Huskies responded.

Senior Kyle Mengarelli scored a game-high 18 points on his 18th birthday in leading Hersey (3-4, 1-1) to a 52-32 Mid-Suburban East victory over visiting Elk Grove at Ken Carter Gymnasium in Arlington Heights.

After losing back-to-back games last weekend to Prospect and Schaumburg, Messer inserted three new starters, which seemed to light a fuse for the Huskies' defense that pressured the Grenadiers from start to finish.

"I didn't like how we were starting out the games," said Messer of the change. "I think it was better than it has been, we clearly needed to focus on defense and it was good to see it work, but we still have a ways to go."

Senior Demitriy Velikov (11 points and 10 rebounds), senior Cody Perenchio, and junior Jordan Mertes got the call to start their first game this season and the three along with Mengarelli and Steve Nelson answered by leading the Huskies to a 12-9 lead after one quarter.

"We ran our offense today and did what we needed to do," said Velikov of the Huskies' start.

Hersey then turned it up a notch, using a 14-3 run to open the second quarter in taking a 26-12 lead. The Huskies defense, spurred by sophomore Connor Miklasz, forced Elk Grove into 8 of its 11 second-quarter turnovers during the run.

"Coach wanted us to make a statement with our defensive pressure," said Mengarelli, who scored 12 points in the second quarter. "We got the defensive rebounds and got up and down the court - transition points is how we scored."

Hersey entered the third quarter with a 28-17 advantage but Elk Grove (1-6, 0-2) narrowed the deficit to 28-23 with 3:39 remaining in the quarter on a drive by J.J. Lastovich.

But Miklasz (8 points) answered with back-to-back 3 pointers as Hersey entered the final quarter with a comfortable 38-23 advantage.

"We came out and executed well," said Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman of the Grenadiers second-half start. "But then we resorted to some unhealthy habits which put us back in the same position we were in the first half."

Senior Tim Furlong came off the bench to lead the Grenadiers with 9 points.