Trunk delivers in clutch for Meadows

Rolling Meadows senior Will Trunk still wears a brace on his leg as he recovers from an ACL injury suffered late last season.

Judging from Friday night's game against visiting Elk Grove, it hasn't affected his play - or his shooting.

Trunk nailed five 3-pointers, three late in the fourth quarter as the Mustangs held off the visiting Grenadiers 48-45 in the Mid-Suburban East boys basketball opener.

"We've got a lot of young guys who haven't been in a situation like this before," said Trunk, who said he doesn't think about the brace at all once he's on the court.

"We were able to hit some shots, played good defense and did a great job of killing the clock down the stretch."

"Obviously, Will hit some big shots," said Meadows coach Kevin Katovich, "and I thought Richie (Kemph) played some nice defense and made a couple of clutch free throws late."

Elk Grove (1-4) trailed all the way until Matt Martinski (12 points, 12 rebounds) dove out of bounds and tapped the ball to Donny Duschinsky (6 points) for a layup and a short-lived 36-35 lead.

Then 3 straight 3s from Trunk (game-high 17 points) helped the Mustangs extend the advantage again.

Elk Grove had a chance at the end after J.J. Lastovich sank 3 free throws but two 3-point attempts before the buzzer fell short.

Kemph added 10 points for the Mustangs (3-2) while Brian Battaglia pitched in 10 for the Grens.

"They showed guts," said Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman of his team. "I can't ask them to play any harder than they did.

"I can only ask them to execute better and that's what we're going to work on."