Hoffman gets boost from Hall

Due mostly to a combination of tight, double-teaming Barrington defense and foul trouble, Hoffman Estates leading scorer Luke Mead was held scoreless through 31/2 quarters Thursday night.

Not to worry - the rest of the Hawks, especially senior Chris Hall, were able to pick up the slack.

Hall scored 19 points as Hoffman ground out a methodical 53-38 victory over the visiting Broncos in the Mid-Suburban West, offsetting a tremendous performance by 6-8 Barrington senior Mack Darrow.

Darrow scored a game-high 21 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked 3 shots as Barrington rallied to tie the game in the third quarter but then went cold.

"There were times tonight when we needed good decisions to keep moving in the right direction," said Hoffman coach Bill Wandro, "at those times our guys made the right decisions and we were able to pull away."

"Chris (Hall) gets his points in all different ways, and tonight he was able to get his shots - he didn't have to force anything."

Barrington (1-7, 0-2) trailed at halftime but fought its way to a 29-29 tie after Darrow nailed a long 3-pointer, but Hoffman scored the next 8 points to draw free.

Mead's first points of the game, a layup, put the Hawks (6-0, 2-0) ahead by double digits midway through the fourth and the Broncos couldn't catch up.

"We were right there," said Barrington coach Marty Dello. "Our game plan was to take Mead out of the game, and I thought we did a good job at that. But to their credit the other guy (Hall) stepped up.

"We also only went 7-of-14 from the free throw line, and that's not going to cut it in the MSL."

Chris Howard scored 9 points for the Broncos, while Mead finished with 10 points for the Hawks, all in the final minutes and Tom Dombrowski added 7.

"In the second half," said Wandro, "we put them in some shooting positions that they didn't want to be in, and I think their shooting percentage went way down."

Hersey 52, Elk Grove 32: 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.

- Michael Eaken

Conant 48, Fremd 38: Essential road gear: defense.

In the Mid-Suburban League, where it's tough to win on the road, it's a necessity. And Conant is the standard-bearer when it comes to packing up the "D" for travel.

The Cougars brought their "D" Thursday night to Fremd, limited the Vikings to 9-of-31 from the floor, just 3 second-half field goals and not a whole lot of good looks at the basket in a 48-38 MSL West road victory.

"That's one thing (defense) we always have to bring. It's a habit," said 6-foot-5 Cougar (5-1, 2-0) guard Tony Rizzo, who helped force 18 turnovers while helping run its offense more effectively with only 8 turnovers.

More importantly, with Fremd applying the defensive pressure that kept Conant without a fourth-quarter field goal, the Cougars knocked down 13-of-18 free throws, including 8-of-10 by Rizzo.

"In the second half, we got away from our post touches," which in part threw the offense out of synch, said Rizzo. Plus, "(Fremd) really came out hard in the second half."

After Rizzo and Tim Gilhooly (21 points) shot Conant into a 29-20 halftime lead, Fremd, as has been its habit against what has been a brutal schedule so far, rallied late, this time behind 6-4 junior forward Chris Klimek (23 points).

"He really stepped up for us, defensively too," said Fremd (0-6, 0-2) coach Bob Widlowski of Klimek's best game so far this season. He also paced the Vikings to a 25-17 rebounding advantage.

But the Cougars never really lost their cool at either end of the floor. Defensive stopper David Trinco had a couple of huge steals down the stretch and Rizzo, Gilhooly and Cameron Leavitt kept hitting their free throws. Fremd got within 4 points twice, but Conant had the answers, on defense or at the free throw line.

And while Klimek was hurting them, they were very aware of senior point guard Dan Bruno, Fremd's emotional leader. He only had 1 field goal and 7 points.

"Cam (Leavitt) did a great job guarding Bruno," said Rizzo, whose lengthy reach helps Conant switch defenses effortlessly from man, to half-court trap to matchup zone.

Now, said McCormack, "We'd like to get a little more balanced on offense," but, "We're happy to get out of a road game with a win."

Must have been the efficient packing.

- Howard Schlossberg

Glenbrook North 72, Maine West 38: Tommy Solis scored 10 points and Alex Samuelson added 8 points for Maine West (1-7, 1-1) in the Central Suburban North road loss. Alex Dragicevich had 19 points for the Spartans.