Boys basketball: Hersey overtakes Barrington in fourth quarter, advances to play Fremd in sectional
Charlie Pomis and Logan Luxem were not even alive when Hersey last won a regional roulette in 2007. The duo helped change that Friday.
Pomis and Luxem combined for Hersey’s first 14 points the fourth quarter. That helped spark the Huskies to a 62-53 win over the Huskies in the Class 4A regional final in Barrington.
“Pomis and Luxem have been solid all year,” Hersey coach Bob Widlowski said. “But I am pleased because they stepped up when the lights were on them tonight.”
Hersey (23-6) will play top-seeded Fremd (26-3) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Schaumburg. Fremd held off Conant 47-44 to win the Larkin regional.
“You don’t see this every day,” said Widlowski, who will coach against his former team next week. “And I am pleased with our guys and we are looking forward to the challenge.”
Hersey, which has won over 20 games for the first time since 2006, grabbed an early 10-7 lead. Barrington’s Chris Tacher closed the first quarter out with a basket and a pair of free throws as the Broncos led 11-10.
Oliver Gray then heated up for Barrington, breaking free early in the second quarter for a pair of three-pointers to spur the Broncos to a 19-15 lead.
Hersey responded with 9 unanswered points. Brody Variano hit a three, Logan Luxem had two free throws while Charlie Pomis had a basket and two free throws as Hersey led 24-19.
Barrington (19-8) then went on a 9-3 run of its own. That included a three-point play by Chris Tacher with 6.7 seconds left in the half to put Barrington up 28-27 at the break.
Leading 37-36, Barrington looked like they have momentum going their way thanks to Gray and Tacher. Gray canned two free throws and a Tacher had a putback and the Broncos had the biggest lead at 41-36 with 55 seconds left in the third quarter.
Hersey was able to chip away and it was 42-40 early in the fourth quarter when Pomis and Luxem did their thing.
Pomis hit a free throw to help ignite a 7-0 run. Pomis accounted for all of those points as Hersey opened up a 47-42 lead with 3:44 to play.
“We just came out in the second half and stayed strong as a team and we won,” said Pomis, who would finish with 19 points. “I feel that our guys had energy the whole time. This could have been our last game and I know our guys didn’t want that to happen.”
Next it was Luxem’s turn. He would score Hersey’s next 7 points as the Huskies increased their lead to 54-47 with 1:40 left.
“I think we just stayed together,” said Luxem, who had 18 points. “Our coaches are telling us the whole time no matter if they make a run or we get down, we just have to keep playing. And that’s what we did.”
It was all free throws from there for Hersey.
“We came out to begin the game with tremendous energy, but that sped us up a lot,” Widlowski said. “We did not execute very well in the first quarter. Once we settled down, I thought we played much better. And especially in the fourth quarter.”
Jackson Hupp added 12 points and 9 rebounds for Hersey while Brody Variano finished with 10 points.
Barrington, which was without sophomore Russ Shellhouse, had others playing with injuries from Wednesday’s physical regional semifinal win over Dundee-Crown.
“Our kids gave everything they had,” Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. “We had a big group of kids playing on one leg. I am really proud of them, I am proud of what they accomplished all season playing with adversity. They are a special group. We just missed some shots at the wrong time.”
Tacher led Barrington with 19 points while Gray had 13 points and Daniel Shackleton 6 points.