Hersey uses championship effort to stop Cary-Grove

Hersey's girls basketball team will play for the Season's End Tournament championship on Monday in Bensenville.

On Saturday night in their own Ken Carter Gymnasium, the Huskies put in a championship effort and pulled out a 39-36 victory over Fox Valley Conference Valley Division co-leader Cary-Grove.

After senior Alyssa Lee's bucket gave the Trojans a 4-3 lead, the Huskies never led until senior point guard Jen Hall hit 2 dramatic free throws with 5.3 seconds left for a 38-36 lead.

Following a line violation by Cary-Grove, the Huskies regained possession and Maggie Hogen made 1 of 2 free throws with 1.5 seconds left to determine the final margin.

"I'd say it was our best win of the season," said Hersey coach Mary Fendley, whose team improved to 14-9. "I'm so proud of how the girls held their composure at the end."

The Trojans (12-7) took their biggest lead (25-18) when junior forward Olivia Jakubicek (game-high 20 points) hit a pair of free throws with 5:29 left in the third quarter.

Hersey kept chipping away and 2 big free throws by Hogen (13 points) got the hosts to within 32-30 with 5:08 left.

Cary's last lead (36-34) came when Lee hit the second of 2 free throws with 50.7 seconds remaining.

Hogen then came through again with 2 more free throws to tie the game at 36-36 with 33.5 seconds left when Jakubicek fouled out.

"I was nervous," Hogen said. "I was like 'we need these to win, we need these to win.' And then Jen, too. She was really clutch with her free throws at the end."

Cary was looking for a go-ahead bucket when Hall (12 points) came up with her third steal of the game.

Fendley called for a timeout right after the theft and 12.5 seconds remained.

The ball got back in Hall's hands and she got fouled on her drive to the bucket, setting up her decisive free throws.

"It's great to finally get a win by finishing the way we did," Hall said. "Everyone stepped up and I'm really proud of all my teammates."

Junior Meg Cerniglia, who fouled out with 2:22 left in the game, pulled down 7 rebounds while Hogen had 6. Corinne Busby (6 points) hit a big 3-pointer in the third quarter.

Hersey junior forward Ashley Raulli went down in pain in the final 30 seconds of the first half with an ankle injury. The Huskies are hoping it is only a sprain.

Hersey made 9 of 11 free throws in the final quarter, including 2 by Renee Poulos (4 points).

"Hersey is really aggressive," Jakubicek said. "They have good shooters and a good inside presence. Basically, it's just a good fundamental basketball team and we had to try and reciprocate that.

"This doesn't affect our conference standing. So we have to see if we can learn from it and get better. We'll go back and look at the film and try to improve for the future."

Paige Lincicum added 9 points for the Trojans while Katie Barker had a key fourth-quarter basket.

The Trojans are currently without 5-foot-10 junior Joslyn Nicholson.

"She has a back injury and when she gets healthy that will definitely help us," Jakubicek added. "We battled the whole game. At the end some things didn't go our way and that's what got us. I got some great passes from my teammates. It's always a team effort "

Hersey used a team effort on defense.

"The girls did a good job adjusting defenses (zone and man-to-man) in the second half," Fendley said. "We haven't played a lot of zone, but I thought it might be effective against them, and it was."

"This game shows us we can play with composure and win a game," Hogen added. "Even though we were down almost the whole game, we were able to come back against a good team."