Hersey wins Pekin consolation title
A cold left Hersey boys basketball coach Steve Messer’s voice a little scratchy at the 47th annual Pekin Holiday Tournament.
The good news for Messer is the talking by his players during games is improving. And the Huskies left Pekin late Thursday afternoon feeling a lot better as they edged Freeport 46-44 in the consolation championship game.
“One area that is really important is our communication with each other when we’re on the court,” Messer said. “For a group of seniors I’ve been kind of disappointed in that, but we showed a lot of progress, even in the game we lost (first round to Morton). We’re starting to communicate more.”
Senior guards Sean Reszotko and Kevin Kozil scored 15 and 14 points respectively and each hit four 3-pointers in the win over Freeport. Hersey (6-7) shot 72 percent from the field (18-for-25) and was 9-for-12 behind the arc as it won the Pekin consolation crown for the third time (1993 and 1998).
Kozil had a breakout tournament as he averaged 12.5 points in the four games. He came in averaging 4.4 points and missed the first four games in his recovery from football injuries.
Reszotko averaged 12 points a game and Stefan Vucicevic, Vuk Vukovic and Trevor Haas also had double-figure scoring games in the tournament.
“They kind of found what we’ve been talking about,” Messer said of the offensive balance. “If they’re going to be sharing the ball and working together, then together they can make a lot of good things happen.”
Hersey trailed Freeport 15-7 when Kozil hit a 3 to start a 15-point run and a 20-2 tear en route to a 27-17 halftime lead. Kozil hit another 3, Haas and Reszotko hit 3s and Joe Mailloux came off the bench to score 6 points against the Pretzels’ zone.
Freeport opened the second half on an 11-0 run en route to a 39-35 lead. Reszotko broke a 40-40 tie with a 3 with 2:31 left and Kozil had a layup a minute later for a 45-40 lead.
“We’re running a good offense,” Messer said. “Our biggest problem has been running our offense with needless turnovers, not being on the same page and trying to create for ourselves.
“We needed to have good possessions and we did.”
Freeport got within a point but missed a shot inside and Reszotko was fouled with eight-tenths of a second left.
He and made the first free throw but intentionally missed the second. Freeport called time at 0:00.4 but threw away the ball.
Messer was also pleased with how the Huskies handled some difficult circumstances before eventually pulling away to a 56-45 win over Bartonville Limestone on Wednesday night.
“We had plenty of excuses and plenty of reasons (to fall apart),” Messer said. “We started talking to each other through the offense and defense. That’s what we want to build on.
“I would say we were better than the three teams we beat (King 63-53 on Wednesday morning) but we still had to play well to play better.”