Meadows takes advantage, stops Hersey
Rolling Meadows’ boys basketball team took advantage of the opportunities it was given in tripping up host Hersey 71-54 Thursday in the Mid-Suburban East.
The Huskies (2-5, 1-1) turned the ball over 19 times in the first three quarters and fell behind 51-27 going into the final period.
“We were not patient. We didn’t make good decisions and we were not intense,” said Hersey coach Steve Messer. “We were hanging in there at halftime (trailing 28-20) because we were rebounding. But we got out-rebounded in the third quarter.”
Hersey out-rebounded the Mustangs 15-10 in the first half.
The Mustangs (4-3, 2-0) started with a 11-3 run to begin the second half.
Mike Olson (16 points 4 3s) started things off with a 3-pointer which was matched by Hersey’s Kevin Kozil. Olson popped in a basket and Brian Nelms (18 points, 6 assists, 3 steals) dropped in back-to-back tear-drop baskets followed by a short jumper for a 39-23 Mustangs lead with 3:41 left in the quarter.
Leading 42-27 with 2:51 left in the quarter Meadows finished the quarter with a 9-0 run to build the lead to 51-27.
“Coach (Kevin Katovich) told us at halftime that Hersey likes to come out strong in the third quarter,” said Olson. “We knew we had to come out hard to start the second half and we did.
“We worked hard in practice this week on rebounding and to stop their slashing to the low post. We’re not a big team, but we’re scrappy. We worked hard on boxing out and it showed.”
The Mustangs committed only 10 turnovers, shot 50 percent from the field (26-of-52) and hit for 10 3-pointers.
“What I was happy about tonight,” Katovich said, “is that it was a good team effort and we received some real good play from the bench (20 points). We’re happy where we are at — 4 wins in a row and now 9 straight MSL East wins going back to last year.”
Hersey shot 11-for-31 in the first three quarters before finishing up at 41 percent for the game.
Sean Reszotko led the Huskies with 25 points, including three 3s, and Justin Jobski had 8 rebounds.