Hersey perseveres to beat Buffalo Grove
Rare are the times a high school basketball team will miss 20 free throws, commit 19 turnovers and still win.
That's what Hersey did Friday night at Buffalo Grove in coming away with a 70-57 Mid-Suburban East win over the Bison.
“We hope that this was our worst game,” said Hersey coach Steve Messer. “We knew we would have to rebound with them to win and we did a pretty good job.”
Junior forward Justin Jobski had a lot to do with the Huskies (2-3, 1-0) winning the battle of the boards 35-30. Jobski hauled down a career-high 16 rebounds to match his 16 points.
“We knew we had to battle them on the boards to win,” said Jobski. “I'm happy to get points any way that I can. We have some talent on this team and we just battle. It helps us to beat a good team like this on the road in our conference opener.”
“Jobski along with our other big guys did a great job on the boards,” said Messer, whose team plays Conant at Loyola's Gentile Center at 12:30 p.m. Sunday. “Jobski was able to get us some big points.”
Hersey trailed only once, early and was tied twice at 18-18 and 23-23 before taking command.
Tied at 23-23 following the Bison's Luke Potnick (16 points) basket with 4:09 left in the first half, the Huskies finished the quarter with a 13-2 run. The 36-25 halftime lead was sparked by Connor Miklasz (25 pts) with five and Trevor Haas with 4 points.
Jobski scored 6 points and pulled down 5 rebounds in the third quarter as Hersey led 51-42 after three quarters.
The Bison (3-2, 0-1) pulled as close as 53-46 with 5:16 left in the game but could not score on their next three possesions.
“That hurt us,” said Bison coach Ryan O'Connor. “We just couldn't get over the hump. We had some shots early in the game that we didn't finish but Hersey finished theirs.”
The Huskies Jared Martin scored on an assist from Jobski and Miklasz scored on a layup to make the score 57-46 with 2:53 left. The Bison could not recover.
Nick Prus added 16 points for the Bison. Sam Wacker added 9 points and 6 rebounds.
Tom Sutrinaitis had 11 points and rebounds for Hersey.