Practice makes perfect for Lelito, Hersey

Hersey's Mike Lelito received coach Steve Messer's message at the end of practice Monday and took it to heart.

"He told me that I shouldn't be a practice player. I should be a complete player," said Lelito. "My whole mentality changed with that."

Lelito scored a career-high 20 points and grabbed 5 rebounds in the Huskies' 77-69 win over visiting Libertyville at Ken Carter gymnasium.

"It wasn't the message, but when it's when you get the message. I told him that at the end of practice," said Messer. "He works hard in practice. He's tough. Tonight he scored, played defense, rebounded, and gave it his all. He's got good arm length and he uses it. He's still developing and he will get better."

Lelito and the rest of the Huskies (8-6) came close to letting a 51-30 third-quarter lead slip away.

The Wildcats (6-7) mounted a 30-13 run over a nine-minute stretch to pull to within 64-60 on Paul Steinhaus' 2 free throws.

Hersey hit 9 of 12 free throws down the stretch including two baskets from Lelito on two of Payton Haas' 6 assists, to ward off Libertyville.

"They made their free throws at the end of the game and we didn't," said Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil about the Wildcats' 8-for-19 free throw shooting, which included 5 of 11 in the fourth quarter. "It was tough for us to come back from the deficit and lose. They (Hersey) came out and put us on our heels. We just seemed to lack energy at the beginning of the game. When we were down 21 somehow we got our energy back."

Hersey finished the last two minutes of the first quarter with a 14-1 run to lead 27-13.

Lelito was the culprit with 8 points, which included two 3s.

"I want to be a more complete player. I want to score, get rebounds and help the other players. I want to build on this," said Lelito. " I have a good role coming off the bench."

Conor Peterson and Joe Borcia played well for the Wildcats. Peterson scored 22 points and had 5 rebounds. Borcia scored 21 points with 6 boards.

Peterson scored 15 in the second half and Borcia 13.

Hersey had good balance with Max Heeren scoring 16, sophomore Joe Coffao 15 and Haas 13.

"This is the kind of scoring that I envisioned at the start of the season," said Messer. "We didn't pass the ball well during the span when they made the run at us. They got some good transition baskets off of those passes."