Boys basketball: Miletic’s 33 points lead Rolling Meadows past Maine South
After Ian Miletic and his Rolling Meadows teammates held off a spirited effort by host Maine South 64-57 Saturday evening, there was more for Miletic and company to enjoy.
The Mustangs left Park Ridge 3-0 for the week and 6-1 on the young campaign with another road trip to Palatine awaiting them Tuesday in a rematch of the last two MSL championship games it lost to the Pirates.
"Going into this game we knew (from) last year they're not a team that gives up (so) our team was prepared for that," Miletic said after his game-high 33 points paced the visitors.
Miletic, a Marquette recruit, is approaching his senior season focused on how grateful he is of his teammates.
"We have a great group of guys,“ Miletic said. ”We've got a lot of underrated guys. I know that each guy can compete at a high level. With our team you can't really just can't key in on one player because we got a bunch of talent that can hit from wherever, whenever.
"I'm looking forward to enjoying this season, taking it one game at a time and hopefully making a run with my guys."
After a Sasha Matashevskiy hoop put the Hawks ahead 7-5 at the 4:11 mark of the first, Miletic went on a scoring binge of his own tallying the next 14 Mustangs points. After a Jack Duffer steal, drive and layup wrapped up a 16-3 run, it left them ahead to stay 21-10 with 4:32 remaining until the break.
Taking a 26-20 advantage into the second half, Meadows then came out and went on a 12-4 surge keyed by Miletic scoring the first four Mustangs points that gave them a 38-24 cushion just over the midway portion of the period.
With the lead at 58-41, Maine South (2-4) put together a 16-8 charge over the final 3:42 of the contest closing within the final margin twice on 3s from senior forward Jack Sladky and junior guard Panayiotis Sotos during the final half-minute.
Junior forward Rico D'Alessandro led the Hawks with 19 points followed by Sotos with 18.
Junior guard Gavin Escobedo and senior guard Jack Duffer each added 12 for Meadows who travel to Wheeling to resume MSL East play at Wheeling Friday.
"Our guys were looking forward to playing tonight," Meadows coach Kevin Katovich said.
"Maine South is a really good team. They're well-coached, they're physical. Our guys stuck together and we kept our composure and got the win."