Confident Hersey rolls past Taft in regional opener
The Hersey boys basketball team coasted to a 58-28 victory over Chicago's Taft High School on Monday night in a Class 4A regional quarterfinal at Jean Walker Field House in Mount Prospect.
The No. 13-seeded Huskies (11-16) mixed a balanced offensive effort with a stifling defense that the No. 20 Eagles (8-19) never overcame. Things will get more difficult for Hersey tonight at 7:30 p.m. against No. 4 Prospect (18-7) at its home court.
"I think if we play like we did today, we can beat Prospect if we put together a good run, said Hersey senior Brad Busby, who tallied 10 points and 6 rebounds. "We're going to keep running this offense and focus on getting rebounds."
Hersey coach Steve Messer had nothing negative to say about his team's offensive performance, but would like to see a more consistent defensive effort.
"We came out with good defensive intensity," said Messer, who watched his team surrender only 6 points in the first half. "We played pretty solid for two or three quarters and got sloppy after that.
"We always have a quarter where we have a meltdown and (our opponent) scores at will. We need to play four quarters of defense."
Ten different Huskies scored in the game, showing how flexible the Hersey offense can be. Leading the way were Busby, Connor Miklasz (10 points), Demitriy Velikov (9) and Kyle Mengarelli (8).
Hersey lost both its previous meetings against the Mid-Suburban champion League Knights by scores of 66-58 and 59-46.