Nelms leads Meadows’ victory

It seemed like every time Rolling Meadows needed a big play in the second half Friday night against Elk Grove, Brian Nelms was there.

Nelms scored 13 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter as the visiting Mustangs improved to 3-0 in Mid-Suburban East action with a 65-47 win over the Grenadiers.

After a back-and-forth opening quarter, Rolling Meadows (6-4, 3-0) went on a 12-4 run to take an 11-point advantage in the second quarter.

Elk Grove (2-6, 1-2) responded right away with a 7-0 run to end the first half to cut the Rolling Meadows lead to 4 at 28-24 and would pull within 2 in the third quarter before Nelms began to put the Grens away. Nelms hit a 3-pointer to extend the Rolling Meadows lead back to 5 and later on added a 3-point play when Elk Grove rallied again to put the game away.

Nelms said that the Mustangs knew they had their work cut out for them playing on the road.

“They are a scrappy team and we knew we had to match their intensity,” Nelms said. “In the first half, we didn’t do a good job of that. In the second half, we had answers and whether it was me getting to the hole, me pulling up or (Mike) Olson low for 3. We were really unselfish giving up the ball.”

Rolling Meadows coach Kevin Katovich said that it was a strong team effort.

“We weren’t hitting from the outside and I thought our guys especially Tyler (Gaedele) did a nice job of adjusting to what they were doing and scoring inside,” Katovich added. “Brian did a nice job as well trying to create off the dribble and Mike Rose and Mike Dolan did a good job rebounding in the second half.”

Gaedele added 16 points for Rolling Meadows, which now has an 11-day break before playing in the Hinsdale South Tournament. Austin Amann led Elk Grove with 13 points while Kishan Patel scored 11 for a Grens team that goes right back to action tonight in the Jacobs Tournament against Barrington.