Hersey runs away from St. Viator

The game was at a point where it could be considered everyone for himself time.

But Hersey senior Tom Sutrinaitis decided to take a pass on adding to what was already a big personal night and tried to make a pass to one of his teammates.

That togetherness typified how the Huskies boys basketball team put together its best performance of the season Saturday night. They handed visiting cross-town rival St. Viator its first loss 81-62 before the usual spirited cross-town rivalry crowd at Ken Carter Gymnasium in Arlington Heights.

“We've been doing it in practice but we're finally getting it in games,” said Hersey senior guard Connor Miklasz, who had 18 points, 8 assists and three 3-pointers.

“This weekend I feel we basically ran teams off the court with our athleticism,” said the 6-foot-5 Sutrinaitis, who matched his career high of 21 points on 8-for-9 shooting and had 15 rebounds. “We had a bunch of fastbreak points.

“We're getting it together and once it gets going, we can be pretty hard to stop.”

It showed in the third quarter as Hersey (5-4) tore away from a 35-33 lead at halftime to its third straight win.

Miklasz, Sutrinaitis, Kevin Kozil (10 points) and Sean Reszotko (11 points, 10 rebounds) all had 5 points apiece.

Trevor Haas (9 points), Justin Jobski (9 rebounds) and Stefan Vucicevic (7 points) also scored in a 26-point outburst that put Hersey up 61-46 going into the fourth quarter.

“(Viator) is a very good team and it's a very good win,” said Hersey coach Steve Messer. “It was a great team performance. I loved how we shared the ball and it was fun to watch us play.”

In just about every area for Hersey as it joined Mid-Suburban East rivals Prospect and Buffalo Grove with 80-point games this weekend. Viator (7-1) gave up its highest point total since an 86-77 loss to Prospect on Jan. 26, 2002.

Hersey shot 47.5 percent from the field (28-for-59), made 21 of 27 free throws, committed only 11 turnovers through three quarters and had a 48-28 rebound advantage.

“We base everything on defense and aggressiveness and we showed both tonight,” said Sutrinaitis, who already had a double-double at halftime with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Viator shot just 31 percent from the field (21-for-70) and was 8-for-38 behind the 3-point arc. Chris Myjak had a team-high 17 points and 7 rebounds.

D.J. Morris had 16 points with four 3s but he missed 12 of 13 second-half shots against Miklasz to finish 6-for-23 from the field. Kevin Walsh added 12 points on 5-for-14 shooting.

“They didn't shoot well,” Messer said, “but I'd like to think we had something to do with it.”

Viator had allowed only 47 points a game in its best start since it won its first 12 games in 2000-01.

“They beat us in every aspect of the game and offensively they just took it to us,” said Viator coach Joe Majkowski. “Tonight was just hustle. They were getting after the boards a lot more than our guys were.

“We had a tough night shooting and I don't know if it affected how we played the rest of the game, but you have to do all the other things we didn't do.”

So Viator will try to regroup for its Wheeling Hardwood Classic opener with Streamwood on Dec. 27. Hersey will try to expand on what it's been doing when it opens Pekin Holiday Tournament play that same day against the hosts.

“Our transition game was good but our half-court game still needs to improve,” Messer said. “We always had that (bond) but the thing was decisions. We made a lot of poor decisions early in the season and got ourselves in bad spots.”

That wasn't the case for the Huskies on Saturday night.