Mehmeti the sparkplug for Addison Trail
Addison Trail senior Adem Mehmeti had a message for his teammates before Wednesday night's boys basketball game with Lane Tech.
"At Thanksgiving at the Ridgewood Tournament, we came out really slow and played tight games," Mehmeti said. "But this time I told our team we've got to come out hot and give the home crowd something to see, and that's what we did."
Indeed, the host Blazers came out on fire and Mehmeti lit the match. The burly 6-foot-4 guard bulled his way to the hoop on his team's first possession to open the scoring.
That was just the start of a great night for Mehmeti. He scored Addison's first 6 points and finished with a game-high 21 points and 12 rebounds as the Blazers remained unbeaten with a 59-48 victory.
"Adem is one of our leaders," Addison Trail coach Brendan Lyons said. "We've been expecting a lot of him the last couple years.
"He was primarily a slasher for us the last two years. He's improved his outside game. He's improved his defensive game and just through his example, his work ethic and the way he plays, other guys on our team look up to him."
It didn't take long for the Blazers (5-0) to start looking for Mehmeti, who tallied 9 points in the first quarter to help put Lane (3-2) in an 18-6 hole.
Mehmeti, who came in averaging 16.5 points on 70 percent shooting, was aggressive from the get-go but said he was getting his points through the offense.
"We run a motion offense," said Mehmeti, who made 7 of 10 shots. "Sheldon, he was finding everyone open. He finds me and finds everyone."
The Blazers sank 8 of 12 shots in the first quarter and finished 21 for 41 despite playing their reserves for much of the fourth quarter.
The Indians scored the last 8 points of the second quarter to pull within 27-15 at halftime, but Mehmeti scored off an assist from J.T. Daniels and Justin Werderitch followed with a layup to begin the third quarter.
With the lane bottled up by Mehmeti and Daniels, the Indians were forced to settle for perimeter shots and the results were dismal. Lane made only 3 of 26 shots from 3-point range and 31 percent overall.
The Blazers turned many of those one-and-dones into transition opportunities. Allgood and A.J. Carlson each scored 9 points and K'Vhon Pounds added 6 points off the bench. Allgood's 3-pointer with 5:30 remaining in the fourth quarter pushed the lead to 55-28.
"We like to get out there and run and that's what we did," Mehmeti said. "We got the rebound, we pushed it and we have some fast guys in Sheldon and A.J. and J.T."
And they've got an all-around force in the 215-pound Mehmeti, who presents a tough matchup problem.
"We lean on him," Lyons said. "He's strong and long. He can play on the perimeter and when the time calls for it, we like to post him up and get him around the basket."