Hersey hangs on in high-scoring affair at Rolling Meadows
Defense took the night off in Rolling Meadows on Friday as Hersey's boys basketball team held off the host Mustangs 94-89 in Mid-Suburban East play.
It was a wild and crazy night, as the teams combined for 55 field goals and 72 free throws, with 56 of those converted. Both teams tallied 33 points in the final quarter as Joey Coffaro led Hersey with 32 points and Jared Murphy scored 35 for Rolling Meadows.
"I told the guys, 'Let's get our buckets,' " Coffaro said. "We will push the floor right away and score in transition."
Hersey (12-9, 6-2), which stayed 1 game behind MSL East leader Prospect, did that early in the game.
Led by Coffaro, who scored 13 of his points in the first quarter, the Huskies bolted to a 25-16 advantage after one quarter.
Rolling Meadows then looked to keep the ball from Coffaro in the second and third quarters. Fortunately for Hersey, Grant Wagner stepped in.
"When they focus on Joey, I usually try to feed off of it and find the open holes," said Wagner, who finished with 15 points. "I crash hard and try to get those boards and put it up right away."
Hersey appeared to have things well in command when the Huskies opened up a 51-30 lead with 6:03 left in the third quarter. That's when Rolling Meadows stepped it up.
The Mustangs (10-12, 2-6) rattled off 14 unanswered points in two minutes. Meadows was able to do that thanks to 6 consecutive Hersey turnovers as the Mustangs closed to 52-47 on a basket by Murphy following a steal.
"Our turnovers led to scores," Hersey coach Steve Messer said. "We had 6 consecutive turnovers, and that is hard to do. And we let them right back in the game."
Hersey kept that lead and appeared to have fought off the Meadows run when the teams entered the fourth quarter with the Huskies leading 61-56.
But The Mustangs weren't quite done.
They opened the quarter with a pair of baskets by Murphy and Jack Schoessling, who finished with 16 points. A free throw made it 62-60 and then a 3 by Joe Coen got Meadows within 63-62 with 6:59 to play.
"I don't know what was going on in that first half," said Rolling Meadows coach Kevin Katovich, who used 3 of his timeouts to try to slow down Hersey's momentum. "We didn't come ready to play. We responded finally. We got some energy."
Meadows extended its lead to 66-64 on a 3-point play by Ryan Carney with 6:26 left.
Hersey scored the next 8 points on its way to a 13-2 run to open up a 77-68 lead on a free throw by Coffaro. Meadows chipped away and got the lead down to 4 at 93-89 on 3 free throws by Murphy with 6.5 seconds left, but that's as close as the Mustangs got.
"I thought it was good that we were in that position before," Messer said. "And they were calm when Meadows took the lead. We were able to finish strong.
Ed Mleko had a season-high 16 points and 14 rebounds for Hersey.
"I knew my teammates were going to find me if I was open," said Mleko, who scored 7 of those points in the final quarter.
The Huskies also got 15 points from Ken Hasley and 9 points from Chris O'Toole. Gio Carrillo chipped in 12 points for Rolling Meadows while Carney had 8 points.