Hoffman, Mead break free of Maine East

The flu bug hit Luke Mead pretty hard this week.

But making only one practice didn't keep the Hoffman Estates senior from a nearly perfect performance in a seemingly endless parade to the free-throw line Saturday night.

Mead connected on 18-of-20 uncontested 15-footers en route to a game-high 22 points as Hoffman (17-6) beat visiting Maine East 64-51 in a nonconference boys basketball game.

"I feel pretty good on the line," said Mead, who is now shooting 78.3 percent (112-for-143). "They kept fouling me so I was pretty happy about that."

As were the Hawks as they finished 26-for-33 - with Kevin Tiongson going 6-for-6 - to 8-for-14 by Maine East (17-5).

"With Maine East and their ability to score points I wanted to keep the ball in our possession as much as possible," said Hoffman coach Bill Wandro. "I wanted to score from the free-throw line."

The Hawks were also pretty efficient from the field at 58.1 percent (18-for-31) as Chris Hall scored 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting. Mead and Tiongson (9 points) finished with 3 assists apiece and they also got a big lift off the bench from Joe Valadez and Jon Bialek.

Mead also had 5 rebounds after scoring 16 points in Friday's 60-52 win over Hoffman to set up next Friday's visit by Conant for sole possession of first place in the Mid-Suburban West.

"Luke came out and played two really, really good games," Wandro said. "We expect him to be an iron man - but to come off a week of illness and perform the way he did is a great testament to his skill as a basketball player. He's a tough guy."

What will make Hoffman even tougher is a stretch such as the tiebreaking 7-point run it had late in the first half to take the lead for good.

Tiongson found Hall for a layup, Hall found Lance Vesper for a layup and Vesper hit Tiongson for a 3-pointer.

"We've worked on getting tougher with the ball and being a more well-rounded scoring team," Mead said. "I was very happy with the way a lot of guys stepped up."

And Hoffman's man-to-man defense never let Maine East find its offensive rhythm as it saw a seven-game winning streak end and lost for only the second time in 14 games.

Charles McKinney had 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting and Dwight Davis added 10 points as the Demons shot 43.5 percent (20-for-46) and were 3-for-15 on 3s.

"For our offense we have to give up good shots to get great ones and we didn't do that," said Maine East coach Glenn Olson of his team that has seen a lot of zone defenses lately. "They did a great job defensively."

Said Mead: "We played well defensively. We worked on stopping dribble penetration and the 3-pointer."

And Maine East couldn't stop Mead when he stepped to the free-throw line.