Rolling Meadows clinches tie for title

Rolling Meadows senior guard Brian Nelms said the big crowd from Friday night’s girls-boys basketball doubleheader inspired the host Mustangs.

“The key was we had a lot of energy from the big crowd and from the girls game before us where they (Mustangs) set a school record for wins,” Nelms said. “We came out with a lot of energy.”

That intensity translated into a 60-51 triumph for the Mustangs (13-7, 7-1), who clinched a tie for the Mid-Suburban East title and lead Prospect (12-7, 5-3) by two games with two to play.

With the score tied 4-4, Nelms gave the Mustangs the lead for good with a 14-foot pull-up jumper.

Moments later, he added 2 free throws for an 8-4 lead and the hosts never looked back.

Nelms went on to score a game-high 19 points along with a dozen assists.

But the Mustangs’ all-time assist leader credited his team’s rebounding for the win.

“We were out-rebounded by Grant on Tuesday,” Nelms said. “But the guys did a heck of job this game, especially Michael Rose (15 points) and Mike Dolan (7 points). We got to the boards this game and that really made a difference.”

Meadows coach Kevin Katovich echoed Nelms’ thoughts.

“Rebounding was our focus after our games against Hersey and Grant, and Rose (13 rebounds) and Mike Dolan (11) especially helped set the tone getting in there and being physical,” Katovich said.

Meadows closed the second quarter with an 8-0 run, getting 3-pointers from Nelms and Mike Olson (6 points) to lead 33-19 at the break.

The Mustangs kept the momentum, using a 6-2 run to open the third quarter and grab a 39-21 cushion.

BG (9-13, 3-5), led by Sam Wacker (16 points), Alex Fritz (12) and Rich Zirngibl (9), never got closer than the final score.

“I felt we played pretty well for a quarter and half,” said BG coach Ryan O’Connor. “But that certainly is not good enough to get you close against a team like this.”

Wacker, Zirngibl and Andrew Apel fouled out for BG.

“The bench got pretty thin,” O’Connor said. “We’ve had some injuries and with the foul trouble, it gave a chance for other kids to get minutes. I thought Colin Inlow and Todd Ahlers did a nice job and our two sophomores (Apel and Inlow) got a lot of minutes so those were positives.”

Katovich praised Nelms’ ability to see the floor.

“He did a great a job getting open looks for our posts,” Katovich said. “And Mike Olson did a great job hitting shots. We knew they were going to box-and-one us, so we needed someone to step up.”