St. Viator rallies from 10 points down to beat short-handed cross-town rival Hersey

A little neighborhood tuneup turned into a battle Saturday in Arlington Heights.

With their respective holiday tournaments looming just a few days away, St. Viator and Hersey fought like the Hatfields and McCoys before a large and vocal crowd.

Led by Joey Hernandez, St. Viator (8-4) rallied from a 10-point first-half deficit to upend Hersey 65-62 in a game that saw 41 total fouls called.

“Hersey-Viator has been a great rivalry has been an awesome neighborhood rivalry for way longer than I have been around,” said St. Viator coach Michael O’Keeffe, who graduated from St. Viator in 2007 and grew up in Arlington Heights.

“Half of the best men in my wedding went to Hersey and the other half went to Viator. The relationships that these kids develop growing up is really cool. I think every year to play against each other and compete at a high level is always a great opportunity.”

Hersey (4-8) played without Jackson Hupp, Kyle Irwin, Ricky DiVito and Bennet McNeil, who broke his arm in Friday night’s game against Wheeling.

Despite being so short-handed, the Huskies fought like a wounded animal.

With Caden Shah knocking down a trio of 3-pointers, Hersey broke out to a 27-17 lead early in the second quarter. The Huskies continued to shoot well from outside the arc with Brody Variano also dropping three shots from long distance as Hersey led 35-26 with 1:04 left in the half.

St. Viator, which stayed close with Bradyn Michaels knocking down three 3s, narrowed its deficit to 37-30 just before the end of the half. That last-minute spark gave the Lions a bit of momentum heading into the second half.

“I was just feeling it,” said Michaels, who finished with 18 points, “I love playing in this gym. It is one of our biggest rivals and a great atmosphere.”

And St. Viator took advantage of that.

Led by Hernandez, who began to drive the ball inside, the Lions opened the second half with an 11-0 run. They forced five turnovers and he'd the Huskies scoreless on five field goal attempts.

St. Viator went on a 15-3 run to lead 46-40 with 2:11 left in the third quarter.

“This is our cross-town rival and we are always excited to see them on our calendar,” said Hernandez, who scored 10 of his 19 points in the third quarter and knocked down 11 of 12 from the free-throw line.

“We just got our minds together at halftime. We just told each other that we had to continue working together.”

St. Viator took a 52-45 lead on a 3-pointer by 35 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Hersey then dug deep. Led by Nick Ahlquist (12 points) and Variano, who had a personal-high 20 points, the Huskies pulled ahead 54-53 with 3:06 to play.

Dayvion Ellis (13 points) then hit a pair of baskets to put the Lions up 57-54 with 1:49 left and St. Viator never trailed from there.

Hersey closed to within two points on three occasions thanks to Jared Ryg (16 points), who had a 3-pointer and a free throw. The final time came with 1.6 seconds left on a pair of free throws, but that's as close as Hersey got.

Ryan Jackson added 7 points and Henry Marshall had 5 points, all in the fourth quarter, for the Lions.

“We have had a few games like this recently where we were down double digits,” O’Keeffe said. “It says a lot about our connectivity and how deep our kids relationships run.”

Hersey coach David Hess said he was proud how hard his team fought despite being so undermanned.

“We are in the midseason grind,” Hess said. “It is next man up. These guys have been working hard in practice and ready for the opportunity. I am incredibly proud of the effort. We just came up one possession short.”