Teamwork helps Hersey pull upset of BG
Ask any Hersey player and he'll offer the same reason for a 59-53 victory over visiting Buffalo Grove on Saturday night at the Ken Carter Gymnasium in Arlington Heights.
The secret was simple.
The Huskies played as a team.
Hersey boys basketball coach Steve Messer used a starting lineup of seniors Ryan Fox, Brad Busby (7 points) and Cody Perenchio and juniors Nick Kautz and Steve Nelson. That quintet helped keep the pressure on the Bison offense early in the game.
"You've got to give credit to those guys," Messer said. "They set the tone for us, just like they did in practice all week. They normally work hard every day in practice and I think our other kids responded and learned from them."
Junior Jordan Mertes (2 baskets) and sophomore Connor Miklasz (2 free throws) combined for 6 points in the final minute of the first quarter to give the Huskies a 17-9 lead.
Hersey led 34-25 at the break and extended the lead 10 points early in the second half when Mertes (10 points) hit 2 free throws.
A steal and dunk by junior Mike Cornely (7 points) along with free throws by John Angotti (11 points) and Kevin Mulligan (13 points) allowed the Bison (12-6, 4-2) to tie the game at 37-37 with 28 seconds left in the third quarter.
However, Hersey (6-11, 2-4) went on a 10-0 run and never looked back.
Kyle Miklasz (team-high 15 points) had a 3-pointer and 3-point play during the big rally while senior Demitriy Velikov (9 points) and Connor Miklasz (13 points) also had buckets.
"We started contesting shots and didn't let them get to the basket in the third quarter," said BGcoach Ryan O'Connor. "But they scored 8 points to start the fourth quarter and that kind of deflated us.
"Overall, we just didn't play well defensively. We missed a lot of little bunnies and free throws but had we played better defense, we would have had a better chance to win."
Dan Wichmann (two 3s) added 12 points for BG while teammate James Hurley had 9, also with a pair of 3s.
Kyle Mengarelli collected 5 assists for the Huskies.
"We've really been focusing on working as a team," Mengarelli said. "And that's exactly what worked for us. The last few games we'd take shots that just didn't fit into our offense.
"This time, we made the extra pass. I think we had a good shooting percentage because we were getting good shots. And we went pretty deep with 11 guys. A lot of people stepped up."
Kyle Miklasz scored all his points in the second and fourth quarters.
"Our starting five helped us set the tone defensively," he said. "They got us off to a good start. We just want to try and go undefeated for the second half of the conference season. The last time we lost on a buzzer-beater to Buffalo Grove. The key for us is playing team basketball."