Wheeling 59, Hersey 50
The Wheeling boys basketball team has picked a perfect time to jell.
Wheeling entered the New Year with a 6-8 record, but the Wildcats have put it together at the right time.
Wheeling used a balanced offense in jumping out to a 15-point fourth-quarter lead and withstood a furious Hersey rally in winning its third straight home game in its 59-50 Mid-Suburban East victory on Friday.
The Wildcats (12-10, 3-6) have gone 6-2 since the start of the year and have held their last three opponents to 50 points or less.
"We're really coming together as a team," said Wheeling coach Lou Wool of his team's run. "That's been the big difference, all our guys are contributing in their own way."
Wheeling had four players score in double figures, with senior guard Chris McClellan leading the way with a team-high 16 points.
Junior Michael Barton (12 points), junior James Kurtz (12 points), and junior Michael Zimmer (11 points) added to the attack in a matchup of teams that will meet again in a Wheeling Class 4A regional opener.
"We came out on fire," added McClellan, who started an 11-1 run in the second quarter with one of his three 3-pointers for a 25-12 advantage.
"It's just jelling. We're coming together as a team it wasn't like that in the beginning of the year."
Hersey (14-10, 6-3) committed 11 of its 16 turnovers en route to falling behind 29-19 at halftime.
"It's the first time in awhile that a team has just come out and taken it to us," said Hersey coach Steve Messer.
Hersey narrowed the margin to 38-33 with 1:24 remaining in the third quarter, but the Wildcats answered on a 3-pointer by Barton and a drive by McClellan to enter the final quarter with a 10-point advantage.
"Everyone is contributing and we just have to keep it going," said Barton, who has picked up his offense in the second half of the season to key the Wildcats surge.
"We're playing real hard together," added Kurtz, who scored 8 points in the second half. "We're really turning it around."
Hersey's Luke Fabrizius scored 8 of his 9 points in the opening quarter, but the 6-foot-9 senior was in serious foul trouble the remainder of the game before fouling out with 5:51 remaining.
The Wildcats immediately increased their advantage to 15 points, but sharp-shooter Griffin Dwyer (game-high 22 points) then hit three 3-pointers in the final 4:24, propelling the Huskies on a 15-5 run and narrowing the deficit to 55-50 with 1:16 remaining.
Dwyer then watched a 3 pointer go in-and-out that would have narrowed the deficit to 2 points with 40 seconds remaining.
"I thought it was going in," added Dwyer, "unfortunately it didn't. We go so far down we didn't have enough time to come back."
Now Hersey, which started the season with a 5-0 conference record, trails Buffalo Grove and Prospect by a game with one remaining.
"We're just going to play Buffalo Grove next week and play our best," added Messer.
Fremd 56, Schaumburg 51: If there is a word to describe the Fremd boys basketball season to date, it might be "finally."
As in, finally, the Vikings are regularly closing out games. As in finally, the Vikings are making big plays at the biggest points in the game. And as in finally, it's all coming together at just the right time, as the state tournament approaches.
From the backdoor cut by Dan Itami for their first basket against Schaumburg's always aggressive man-to-man defense to their closing 5 consecutive free throws in the fourth quarter, the visiting Vikings finally have the consistency they seem to have searched for all season in a 56-51 Mid-Suburban West win.
"We made some plays. We stepped up and made big plays," said Fremd coach Bob Widlowski, whose club kept .500 overall in sight (10-12) with 3 regular-season games left and moved to 5-4 in the division.
And they were big plays indeed, especially down the stretch, especially on defense as Fremd swept the Saxons for the first time since division realignment in 1998-99.
There was someone in a crowd stripping Schaumburg center Blake Mueller of the ball under the hoop for what would've been a sure layup to cut the lead to 3. Plus, high-scorer Jim Mundt (19 points) had a steal of a crosscourt pass for a length-of-the-court driving layup with under two minutes left.
And Dan Itami finally hit the fourth-quarter free throw that broke a string of misses and got the Vikings rolling to close out the game as Dan Bruno (11 points) finished his usual gutty performance with 4 straight free tosses down the stretch.
For Mundt, who for much of the game found himself Fremd's only senior on the court, much of that time was spent making sure the underclassmen who will be the core of next year's team stayed focused.
"I was trying to help us keep our composure," he said. "Everyone stepped up at different times. We just took it to them," he noted of the contributions of underclassmen like Bruno, center Will Reising, who had 2 huge fourth-quarter hoops, and guard Joe DePaolis, who hit a big third-quarter 3-pointer.
Schaumburg (13-8, 5-4) would like to achieve that consistency after a week of 2 losses by a total of 11 points.
"I'm very disappointed," said Saxons coach Bob Williams. "It's disheartening our players don't understand the benefit and wisdom of doing certain things.
"We made some strides, but this week, we took some strides back," he added, refusing to use injured star Cully Payne's absence because of a thumb injury as a crutch.
Brandon Bolger paced the Saxons with 16 perimeter-oriented points against Fremd's tough zone before fouling out. Perrish Bell, on an injured leg, put in 9, while Mueller, Dan Slowik, and, off the bench, Sean Everitt, all added 8 points.
-- Howard Schlossberg
Maine W. 61, Maine E. 54:: After the first quarter on Friday, Maine West needed to find its groove in order to have any chance of beating rival Maine East.
After scoring only 9 points in the first the Warriors came out storming for the next 24 minutes, leading to a 61-54 Central-Suburban North home win in Des Plaines.
Leading the way for Maine West was senior guard Adis Kadiric, who poured in a team-high 22 points, which included 3 second-half 3-pointers. Kadiric also pulled in 9 rebounds in his team's second straight division win and third in a row overall.
"This was probably the biggest effort we've had all season," said Kadiric. "We had a lot of guys step up when we needed them which made this a quality win."
Despite being outscored for the final three quarters the Blue Demons (15-8, 3-6) stayed in the hunt until the final minutes. Junior Danhi Wilson had a game-high 25 points while senior Avery Roche added 18 points and 8 rebounds.
As both sides traded shots in the third quarter it would be the Warriors' 3-point shooting that would put them over the top. Senior Jimmy Orlowski (10 points) sank a bomb from 23 feet to give Maine West (7-18, 2-7) a 6-point cushion going into the fourth quarter.
"We rely on outside shooting because that's been our biggest strength," said Maine West coach Erik McNeill. "Adis and Jimmy did a great job of hitting the big shots tonight."
The Warriors also received 17 points from 6-foot-7 junior Tommy Solis.
As the Blue Demons began battling back in the fourth quarter, Maine West's defense stood taller than it had had all night, forcing turnovers and grabbing much-needed rebounds.
"We're glad that we closed this one out tonight," said Kadiric. "This is our third win in a row and for it to happen against a good team like Maine East makes it really special."
-- Todd Mrowice
Carmel 63, St. Patrick 41: After the St. Patrick boys basketball team defeated visiting Carmel 63-41, it was hard to believe how competitive the game was at halftime Friday night in Chicago.
The Corsairs overcame a slow start in the first quarter and only trailed 26-25.
"We got a 7-0 lead and it seemed like our guys thought the game was over," St. Patrick coach Mike Bailey said.
Even though St. Patrick is in first place in the East Suburban Catholic Conference, Carmel had every right to be confident. In the first meeting, Carmel extended the Shamrocks to overtime before losing 51-49.
"We knew we could play with them," said Carmel senior Jordan Sivertsen, who made a trio of 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 17 points.
Bailey was extremely disappointed with his team's defense in the first half.
"We were reckless (defending) the ball; that set them up for their drive and kick game," Bailey said.
In the second half, nothing came easy for Carmel. At the same time, St. Patrick made four of its seven 3-pointers in the final six minutes of the third quarter en route to a 46-31 lead.
St. Patrick (16-5, 9-1) maintained its 1-game conference lead. Carmel fell to 4-21, 1-10.
"We mixed it up defensively in the first half, but when you fall behind there's a limit to what you can do," Corsairs coach Jon Baffico said. "They knocked down some shots and that's what a good team does on their home court."
Two of Sivertsen's 3-pointers came from well behind the 3-point line.
"They didn't give us open shots," Sivertsen said.
Carmel senior David Venegoni hit two 3-pointers and had 7 points. Junior Jack Baucus contributed 4 points.
"We'd like to see them all in double digits in one night," Baffico said.
The Shamrocks had five players score at least eight points. Junior guard Tim Traversa, who hit the game-winner in the first meeting, had a team-high 14 points.
Carmel is off until next Friday's game against Marist.
"We're (continuing) to get ready for the (state) tournament," Baffico said. "All these games are great preparation."
-- Bob Gosman