Hersey holds off Prospect

Maddie Swan iced the game and then got an icepack for the back of her head Friday night.

The Hersey senior took a nasty fall after blocking a shot with 40 seconds left that briefly forced her out of the Mid-Suburban East girls basketball game at Prospect's Jean Walker Field House.

But Swan kept her wits when she stepped up and hit 2 free throws with 16.5 seconds left to set the final score for Hersey (19-8, 6-4) in a 52-49 victory.

"Actually I wasn't totally confident," Swan said with a smile after finishing with 8 points and 9 rebounds. "I had to relax and breathe."

Swan also played a big part in Hersey's suffocating defense in the final possession as it didn't allow Prospect (17-8, 6-4) to get a decent attempt from behind the 3-point arc to force overtime.

"We had two of our shooters set up to try to get it but it just didn't work out the way we wanted," said Prospect coach Martha Kelly.

"Our perimeter defense wasn't great until it had to be," said Hersey coach Mary Fendley. "(In the timeout) we said we had to defend the 3. Maddie said, 'Even me,' and I said, 'Even you.'

"Ironically our center's perimeter defense kept them from getting a shot off."

Kelly Rogowski scored 13 of her game-high 21 points to help Hersey take a 31-19 lead 30 seconds into the second half. But Prospect fought back as sophomore Sarah Hunt (13 points, 10 rebounds) and Alyssa Glennon (8 points) combined for 11 third-quarter points.

Three times in the fourth quarter junior Rachel Hunt (10 points) scored to get Prospect within a point - the last at 48-47 on a drive with two minutes left.

"We played great in the second half," Kelly said. "We just finished better in the second half than we were in the first half."

After a Prospect turnover, Rogowski hit the first of 2 free throws with 54 seconds left. Swan preserved the lead with a blocked shot in the lane and after her hard fall on a foul, Kari Tunney came off the bench as a subsitiute shooter to hit the first of 2 free throws.

Swan then capped Hersey's 17-for-20 performance at the line.

"It was great and really awesome to beat Prospect," Swan said of avenging a season-opening East loss to finish in a second-place tie behind Wheeling.