Boys basketball: Hersey pulls out thriller over Palatine in three OTs

There was an extra helping of Thanksgiving Friday in Arlington Heights.

And some extra basketball to go with it when Hersey outlasted Palatine 61-56 in triple overtime in a battle of unbeaten teams.

The win not only gave Hersey a victory in the revamped Mid-Suburban West. It also gave the Huskies (6-0, 2-0) the championship of the 2025 Ed Molitor Thanksgiving Classic.

That title game was supposed to be held on Nov. 29 at Palatine. It was put on hold when heavy snows canceled play that day. With both Palatine and Hersey scheduled to play Friday night, the coaches agreed to make the game the championship game of the tournament as well.

On Friday, Hersey grabbed the final slice of dessert in a game that had the feel from start to the long finish of a championship game.

“We talked about this before the season that this is the way it is going to be in the MSL West,” Hersey coach Bob Widlowski said. “Every night is going to be a battle. And you’ve got to bring your ‘A’ game. And I think that both teams competed at a high level tonight in a great early season high school basketball game.”

Jake Nawrot was playing just limited minutes of basketball at Thanksgiving since he was the quarterback of the Huskies’ quarterfinal football team. Playing against Palatine now in December, Nawrot had the extra two weeks of basketball to help the junior acclimate to the court.

That came in handy when he scored six of his 18 points in the third overtime. That enabled the Huskies to pull away from a 53-53 tie it take a 59-54 lead.

“It is always fun,” Nawrot said. “This was our first home game and the energy was already good. We were feeling good. I think we hit some things to go our way and get us to overtime.”

Palatine (6-1, 1-1) used a huge fourth quarter from Tony Balanganayi (24 points, 15 rebounds) to erase a 32-31 deficit at the end of the third quarter and lead 42-37 with 1:34 to play in regulation. Balanganayi, who will be playing football at Illinois next fall, had 9 points and 5 rebounds in the fourth quarter.

Charlie Pomis led the Huskies back. Pomis hit a basket and then after a Palatine turnover, drilled a 35-footer to send the game into overtime tied at 42-42.

“The play was a double-screen for me,” said Pomis, who finished with 16 points. “I saw that they were sagging back. I know I was pretty far out, but I know it was the shot to hit.”

Each team had just one basket in the first overtime. In the second overtime, there were five lead changes.

Palatine looked to be in control when Darren Dick drilled a three-pointer to put the Pirates up 51-50 with 53 seconds left in the second overtime. Palatine’s Abram Williams (10 points) followed with two free throws to make it 53-50 with 22.5 seconds left.

But Hersey got another rescue play. Logan Luxem (14 points), who had previously scored two baskets earlier in the extra frame, drilled a long 3-pointer with seven seconds reaming to tie it at 53-53.

In the third overtime, Nawrot’s basket put the Huskies up for good. After Balanganayi cut the lead to 55-54 with a free throw, Nawrot added a basket and two free throws and Kyle Irwin added another free throw as the Huskies opened up a 60-54 lead.

Ethan Gries added 11 points for the Huskies while Brady May and Robbie Wilcox each had 9 points for Palatine.

“One of the first things we said to our guys is that we have eight more of these,” said Palatine coach Eric Millstone, whose team hosts Fremd next Friday.

“The way we realigned, I don’t know if every game is going to go three overtimes, but it is going to be a dogfight. It was just a good hard-fought battle.”