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Lessons learned, Hersey handles Grayslake Central

Hersey’s seniors got to honor their favorite high school mentors prior to Tuesday’s nonconference girls basketball game with visiting Grayslake Central.

“It something we’ve done every season since I’ve been here, ” said Mary Fendley, who is in her 16th season as Hersey’s head coach. “The seniors put a lot of hours in with the teaching staff here, and they like to show their appreciation.”

Fendley asks them to pick one teacher.

“But trust me,” she added. “They bring a much bigger list.”

Hersey also brings a pretty good basketball team to the floor.

The Huskies won for the 18th time in 20 games, defeating the Rams 47-33 at the Ken Carter Gymnasium in Arlington Heights.

“This is the type of game you want to play late in the season,” said Rams coach Steve Ikenn, whose team (14-7) had won three straight. “You see where you are at and what you need to work on. Hersey is well-coached and very disciplined. They don’t make a lot of mistakes.”

The Huskies are also quite young.

They were led offensively by freshman Claire Gritt (13 points) and on the boards by 6-foot sophomore Maggie Berigan with 14 rebounds.

The last two years Gritt was playing at Thomas Middle School and lost only one game.

“It was nice to watch our seniors honor their teachers,” said Gritt, a 5-9 guard. “Especially with our seniors being such great leaders.”

Senior Morgan Harris tossed in 9 points while Berigan, junior Annie Korff and junior Juliette Vainisi each chipped in 6.

The Huskies broke on top 17-5 after one quarter and never looked back. They closed the first eight minutes with an 8-1 run, getting a fastbreak layup by Harris, back-to-back buckets by Gritt and a layup up senior Renee Poulos.

Poulos is one of the Huskies’ four seniors.

Her teacher appreciation went to Bob Murphy, who was her business teacher but is now an assistant principal at Elk Grove High School.

“I was lucky to have Mr. Murphy here,” said Poulos, who also played on Huber’s girls golf team at Hersey. “He has really impacted me. It’s difficult not having him here my senior year but I’m glad he could come back for this special night.”

Harris honored science teacher Kelly Pataky. Alysia Zaucha presented physical education teacher, varsity softball coach and freshman basketball coach Molly Freeman and Sarah Thompson paid tribute to math teacher Jackie Ballarini.

“It been a good tradition,” Fendley said. “I think it’s important to the seniors.”

Ikenn’s 6-1 senior center Morgan Dahlstrom led the Rams with 18 points and 15 rebounds while junior guard Lauren Spalding chipped in 6 points.

“I thought Lauren had a real solid floor game,” Ikenn said. “And Morgan Dahlstrom had a real nice game.”

Ikenn said turnovers set his team back early.

“We just had too many at the start of the game,” he said. “We had 11 in the first half and 15 for the game. Normally we handle pressure.

“Hersey is an aggressive team and capitalized on all out mistakes. I thought we played really well after the first quarter. But you’ve got to play 32 minutes. But we are better off for playing this game.”

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