Boys basketball: Hersey stays perfect with hard-fought win over Rolling Meadows
It wasn't easy, but the Hersey boys basketball team managed to remain undefeated in the 2025-26 season Friday night against visiting Rolling Meadows despite a late rally by the pesky Mustangs.
The Huskies (8-0, 2-0) had their lead cut to 50-48 on two free throws by Tyler Stankiewicz with 2:13 to play. But that was as close as the Mustangs (5-4, 1-2) would get in this Mid-Suburban League West Division game.
Senior Ethan Gries (team-high 14 points) hit his fourth 3-pointer of the contest for a 53-48 lead with 1:45 to play before Hersey salted away a 56-50 victory down the stretch.
A free throw by Charlie Pomis (13 points) boosted the lead to 54-48 before a free throw by teammate Jake Nawrot (12 points) made the score 54-48 with 43.9 seconds to go.
"The first half was a little sloppy on defense, but we stepped it up and pulled through," said Gries, whose team led 19-13 after one quarter and 36-29 at halftime. "I know my team trusts me to shoot those (3-pointers) so if I'm open I'm going to shoot them. It's a great feeling (to be undefeated). We just can't let it get to us, and we just have to keep working every day to get better."
Gries' third 3-pointer gave the Huskies their biggest lead at 42-31 early in the third quarter. But Rolling Meadows cut the lead to 48-46 on 3-pointers by Andrew Krestel (game-high 16 points) and Tony Ruffalo with 4:20 to play.
"I thought we came with great effort and attitude tonight, and we know every game in this new MSL Division is going to be like this so you have to bring it on every single night," said Hersey coach Bob Widlowski, whose team played the Mustangs to a 13-13 deadlock in the fourth quarter. "I thought we kept our composure when they cut the lead down at the end, and we finished the last two minutes strong. I thought we had a huge night from Ethan Gries who stepped up for us at both ends of the court."
Junior Tristan Trotter had all 11 of his points in the first half for Hersey while Marty Lesner and Sean Kerr scored 8 points each for the Mustangs. Stankiewicz (7 points) had his shot from beyond halfcourt go in and out just before halftime.
"We did have our chances, and we knew that to have a chance we needed to keep the tempo where we were comfortable with and in the second half we were able to have some longer possessions," said Rolling Meadows coach Kevin Katovich.
"But at the end of the day they made a lot of good shots so you have to tip your hat to them. They're a really good team, they have a lot of different weapons so you can't really focus on taking one guy away because if you do that someone else will hurt you. I thought Gries really stepped up and he had three big 3's in the second half."