Diversity, winning suit Hersey

Like it has been all season, the offensive balance of Hersey’s girls basketball team was clearly in operation Saturday afternoon at the Ken Carter Gymnasium.

Playing their tenth game, the Huskies produced a fifth different player to lead the team in points.

This time, it was Renee Poulos.

The senior forward tossed in 13 points as the Huskies rolled to their ninth win against one loss with a 55-32 triumph over visiting Glenbrook South.

Further symbolizing the balance, three other Hersey players reached doubles figures, all 1 point apart — Annie Korff (12 points), Claire Gritt (11) and Morgan Harris (10).

“It’s just how diverse we are with scoring,” Poulos said. “And Morgan (Harris) had 10 assists helping us get our points. She could have more, too, if we’d have made some more layups.”

Harris’ double-double began early as she hit a 3-pointer to give Hersey a 12-7 lead and then assisted on Poulos’ 15-footer which made it 14-7 and forced Titans coach Steve Weissenstein to call his second timeout.

“They (Hersey) play really well together,” said the veteran South coach. “They handle the ball well and they can all shoot. That’s why they are a real good team.”

The Huskies, seeded No. 1 at the Wheaton North tournament next week, went ahead 26-16 on Gritt’s putback with 3:22 left in the first half.

But the Titans (4-7) got back to within 27-23 on a basket from freshman Carrie Weinman with less than a minute left in the half.

Poulos answered moments later and the hosts went into the break leading 29-23.

“These past two games (Saturday and Friday’s 58-45 win at Elk Grove), our defense has led to offense,” Poulos said. “In our one loss to Prospect (Tuesday) we kind of slipped up on defense. So we are kind of bouncing back and looking forward to the Wheaton North tournament.”

The Huskies back bounced strong from the intermission and outscored South 16-4.

One of the highlights in the period was a fast break in which freshman Kelly Weyhrich split defenders with a pass to classmate Gritt, who in turn fired the ball to sophomore Maggie Berigan, who made the running layup for a 38-27 lead.

Berigan (4 points) finished with a team-high 7 rebounds.

“The fact that everyone can score is awesome,” Harris said. “Because the other team can’t focus on one player.”

The Huskies’ focus has been on defense.

“That’s what we’ve been working on in practice,” Harris said. “Good defense leads to good offense.”

Leading the Titans’ offense was senior forward Riley Dahiya (10 points) and sophomore Sydney DeHorn (8).

“We made a little run,” Weissenstein said. “Then we didn’t make shots, didn’t take care of the ball and didn’t make good decisions.

“We’re young, but that’s only an excuse for so long. We’ve got to start making better decisions with the ball.”

Huskies coach Mary Fendley likes the decisions Harris has been making with the ball. The senior guard had 6 assists on Friday night.

“She’s been doing a real nice job distributing the ball lately,” Fendley said.”We didn’t play great against Prospect but they’re a great team. It’s no shame losing that game as long as we learn something from it.

“We weren’t pleased with our defense that game so we addressed some issues about that in practice. And I think it has showed in our last two games.”