Hersey 63, Wheeling 55

The clock was ticking for Luke Fabrizius, Michael Mueller, Griffin Dwyer and the rest of the Hersey seniors.

The Huskies had trailed the host Wildcats at the Class 4A Wheeling regional for most of the semifinal Wednesday, at times by double digits, and by 5 points midway through the fourth quarter.

"We were down," said Fabrizius, "and Griffin, Mike, and rest of the seniors looked at each other and basically said, 'this isn't the way we want it to end.'"

It didn't, thanks to some aggressive defense and hot shooting down the stretch.

The No. 7 Huskies (15-12) went on a 12-point run late in the game and when the 6-foot-9 Fabrizius let out a yell after punctuating the rally with a dunk with a minute to play, they were on their way to a 63-55 victory.

Mueller scored 12 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth-quarter and Dwyer (17 points) hit a clutch 3 to put Hersey in Friday's 7:30 p.m. regional final against No. 2 New Trier (19-7).

"The key was to keep up our intensity and keep attacking the basket," said Mueller. "We had to stay in the game and keep fighting any way we could. We knew our cold streak would end if we kept going to the basket."

Chris McClellan led No. 10 Wheeling (13-13) with 14 points.

"We kind of lost our composure at the end," said the senior guard. "We didn't run our offense, and we were forcing our shots. They hit their shots, so you have to tip your hat to them."

Wheeling's biggest lead was 11 with three minutes left in the third but Hersey kept chipping away and Dwyer's long 3 with 3:03 left tied the game at 50-50.

Then Kyle Mengarelli (11 points) hit a 3, Mueller had 2 free throws, Fabrizius (11 points) got his dunk and just like that Hersey was up 57-50.

A 3 by McClellan cut the lead to 4 but free throws by Dwyer, Mueller and Fabrizius in the closing seconds helped Hersey prevail.

James Kurtz scored 11 points for Wheeling and senior Alex Chery had a monster game with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks.

"This was a change of pace for us," said Fabrizius. "We usually get the lead in games then struggle late. But we kept attacking the basket, and Mike (Mueller) was huge for us in the fourth quarter. He set the tone."

"Mueller was outstanding," echoed Hersey coach Steve Messer," and what I was most impressed with was that for the first time all year, he got mad when I took him out of the game. He had his game face on tonight."