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Hinsdale South gets shots to fall against Metea Valley

If at first the shots don't fall, shoot, shoot away.

That was the philosophy Hinsdale South senior Brian Kern went with Tuesday night and it paid big dividends in the Hornets' 55-40 victory over Metea Valley in semifinal action at the Class 4A Glenbard East boys basketball regional. Kern missed all five of his shots in the first quarter before heating up to tally a game-high 20 points with five 3-pointers.

"I was, like, 0-for-5 or 0-for-6, but I knew that good shooters keep shooting," the 6-foot-2 guard said. "I knew I'd get it eventually."

The game was tied at 11-11 after one quarter before the fourth-seeded Hornets took a 23-16 lead at the half behind 10 points from 6-foot-10 Barret Benson. When Kern exploded for 13 points in the third quarter Hinsdale South (21-9) built a 47-29 lead on its way to advancing to Friday's regional final against either Glenbard East or Downers Grove South.

"I felt like we had little jitters for the first game and that we were nervous because we wanted to do some damage in here," Kern said of the team's slow start against the Mustangs. "But in the second half we just started hitting some shots."

Metea Valley (14-16), on the other hand, battled throughout the contest but never really got on track offensively. Montrell Oliver, one of seven seniors playing his final game for the program, knocked down a pair of 3s in the second half and led the team with 13 points and 3 steals. Fellow senior Tristan Schlosser added 9 points off the bench, but sophomore Malik Hall was limited to 8 points and 5 rebounds by the big, physical Hornets' defense.

"I feel that throughout the whole season we really fought hard. That's what you can look back and see with us, we never gave up," Oliver said. "Credit Hinsdale South, they did play really well and they were hitting their shots."

Mustangs coach Bob Vozza was impressed with his team's fight all year and with its defense Tuesday.

"Today in the first half it seemed like we were playing good defense, but tonight we just couldn't get anything thing gong offensively," Vozza said. "I was frustrated at the half, but then you look up and we gave up 23 points. If you had asked me that this morning I would have been happy with it."

But the Hornets were tough inside with Benson and then mixed in seven 3s while moving on to the next round.

"You can't complain about that at all," Benson said of the Hornets' effective inside-outside game. "When Brian's hot it takes a lot of pressure off me inside. They don't send doubles and triples because our 3-point shooters will hit them."

Benson scored 32 points in a win against the Mustangs earlier this year, so he was confident taking the floor for this game.

"I had a pretty good game against them last time so I was expecting another one tonight," the Northwestern-bound post player said. "My guys kept feeding the ball and hitting the shots when I kicked it out. They took care of me. It was a little sloppier than we wanted to play, but it was the first game of regionals and hopefully we got the bad one out of the way."

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