Kemph erupts for 41 as Mustangs roll
There was no doubt that the night belong to Rolling Meadows junior forward Richie Kemph.
Kemph poured in a career-high 41 points to lead the Mustangs to a 66-56 win over visiting Wheeling in the Mid-Suburban East on Thursday.
"Honestly, I didn't think it was anything special," said Kemph who connected on 16-of-19 shooting and had 5 rebounds along with 2 steals. "I'm just happy for the win.
"A lot of credit goes to my teammates. We just executed our offense and ran our plays well. We are a team."
Kemph became the fourth player in school history to score 40 points in a game. Mike Lipnisky holds the Mid-Suburban League record with 54 at the 1989 Elgin tournament, Rob Garnes scored 47 against Maine West in 1999 and Todd Broeker had 41 against Elgin in 1979-80.
Meadows (4-2, 2-0) took command early, building a 12-4 lead but the Wildcats, (1-5, 0-2) chipped away and took a 20-18 lead to finish the first quarter.
Kemph, who scored 9 points in the first quarter, scored 18 of the Mustangs' 24 second quarter points to build a 42-33 halftime lead.
Kemph's 3-pointerwith 6:30 left in the gave the Mustangs the lead for good at 23-20.
Wheeling closed the gap to 48-47 with 2:00 left in the third quarter on Robert Carter's (10 points, 12 rebounds) basket. But that would be as close as the Wildcats would get.
Leading 58-52, Kemph stole the ball and went in for a layup with 1:11 left in the game to take any fight out of the Wildcats.
"We would cut into the lead," said Wheeling coach Lou Wool, " and then we would make a critical turnover. We just were not ready mentally to play in the first half."
Michael Barton led Wheeling with 19 points and James Kurtz added 13 points.
"Everyone played their role tonight," said Meadows coach Kevin Katovich. "It was a total team effort. Richie is a gifted player. He did his job tonight and so did the others.
"I have to give a lot of credit to our scout team. They really helped us prepare for this one."
Nelms finished with 12 points and 5 assists. Ted Metzger added 9 rebounds and Jimmy Garoppolo had 7 rebounds.