Balanced Hersey topples Wheeling

Because of injury, Hersey only had nine players available for Saturday night's Mid-Suburban League East Division boys basketball game at Wheeling.

It didn't seem to bother the Huskies (4-1, 10-6) in the least.

Showing tremendous balance, Hersey delivered a strong effort in a 64-35 win over the Wildcats.

Junior guard Connor Miklasz scored 16 points, including 9 in the first quarter when Hersey ran out to a double-digit lead and didn't look back.

Six-foot-4 junior Riley Harvey scored a game-high 18 points for Wheeling (0-5, 3-13).

"We came out wanting to attack the rim and hold them down on defense - and we were able to do that," Miklasz said.

Hersey sophomore Justin Jobski contributed 11 points to the victory, senior guard Jordan Mertes added 10 points and 6-5 junior forward Tom Sutrinaitis scored 8 points and grabbed 7 rebounds.

"For the first time this season," said Hersey coach Steve Messer, "we came out and played four quarters," said Huskies coach Steve Messer.

"We played together as a team the entire game and that was nice to see."

In a halftime ceremony, Wheeling inducted former football coach Bill Daletski, four-sport athlete Sandra Rainey Ernst, staff member and friend of athletics Marilyn Kent and Olympic runner Jorge Torres (a three-time cross country state champion) into the Wildcats Athletic Hall of Fame.