Hersey passes key test against Rolling Meadows
Friday night’s Mid-Suburban East showdown with visiting Rolling Meadows was the first of four games in five days for Hersey’s girls basketball team.
“These girls are so conscientious,” said Huskies veteran coach Mary Fendley. “I don’t have to worry. I know they’re still doing a lot of studying.”
They sure were doing a lot of rallying in the final 10 minutes against Rolling Meadows.
Trailing 40-30 with 1:50 remaining in the third quarter, all-state guard Megan Rogowski (game-high 29 points, 16 in the second half) fired home a 3-pointer that ignited a 25-5 run to propel the Huskies to a 57-48 triumph in the Mid-Suburban East.
Hersey (18-4, 6-0) gained a 1½-game lead over Buffalo Grove (9-13, 5-2) and 2-game lead over Meadows (15-7, 4-2).
“We just kept thinking positive, we knew we had to get back in the game,” said Huskies junior point guard Jen Hall (8 points), who had 2 big steals and assists during the big comeback. “Megan (Rogowski) hit some big shots, and we focused on our defense to ignite the offense.”
Freshman Jackie Kemph hit a lot of big shots for Meadows, often twisting her way between and under defenders for short bank shots. She finished with a career-high 22 points while sophomore Morgan Keller added 12 and freshman Jenny Vliet 7.
Kemph’s 2 free throws brought Meadows to within 27-26 at half.
Meadows started the third quarter with an 8-1 run and Kemph had 5 of the Mustang’s points.
“There have been a number of times where Jackie has taken off her jacket and put on the Superman cape,” said Mustangs coach Todd Hatfield. “She did that for 36 minutes tonight.”
“It was great until the fourth quarter,” Kemph said. “We should not have let them back in the game. We gave it our all.”
Hersey jumped out to a 16-7 lead but Meadows battled back and tied it at 20-20 when Kemph made a big circle drive from the top of the key for a layup with 3:23 left in the second quarter.
“Oh my gosh, she uses her body so well to penetrate to the basket,” Hall said. “She is going to be so good as she gets older.”
Rogowski was good as usual, whether it was hitting 3s, driving or making free throws (10-of-13).
“Absolutely fantastic,” Hatfield said of the DePaul-bound guard. “Hersey’s offense was awesome. They did a great job running stuff and even I get caught up watching Rogowski because she is so good.”
Maggie Hogen added 8 points and 8 rebounds for Hersey while teammate Eileen Zydek chipped in 7 points and 5 rebounds.
“Eileen always seems to be in the right spot,” Fendley said. “And I thought Michaela Dwyer did a nice job staying in front of Kemph in the second half.”
Amanda Gunn, who scored Meadows’ first bucket, was forced to leave the game in the second quarter when she took an inadvertent elbow to her lip.
“Amanda kind of set the tone early for us so that hurt,” Hatfield said. “Without Amanda and Ann Marie Lynch (been out with broken hand) that made it tough for our defense,” Hatfield said. “We came out strong for three quarters but kind of ran of gas.
“Even though it will be tough for the conference title, these girls can still achieve a lot of other things like the most wins in a single season at Meadows (21).”
Hersey know it needs to rack up more wins for a division title.
“We thought this would be big to have two wins over the second-place team,” Fendley said. “Now we feel like we are in the driver’s seat. But it’s still not easy. We have a lot of good teams in our division.
“Our press started getting us steals and we were hustling more,” Rogowski said of the big Hersey’s comeback Friday. “It was the same as our Prospect game (two weeks ago). It got tense in the third quarter and then we came back in the fourth quarter.”
Now the Huskies come back today with Cary-Grove, Monday with Oak Park and Tuesday at Prospect.
“It’s a big stretch,” Rogowski said. “We can’t wait til the last quarter to start playing. We must play all four.”