Hersey handles Wheeling

After spending a week practicing for Friday night's assignment at Wheeling, Hersey's girls basketball team got down to business in the second half.

Nursing a 27-24 lead at intermission, Mary Kate Fahey scored 11 of her 12 points in the second half and senior Emily Collins finished with a game-high 22 points to help the Huskies pull away to a 62-41 Mid-Suburban East triumph.

"This was the first time all season where we had a full week of practice for a game," said Hersey coach Mary Fendley. "And in the first half, I felt it was not reflective of what we talked about all week."

Fendley's talk at half obviously brought out the best in the Huskies, who finished the third quarter on a 15-3 run.

The big rally started with a 12-footer in the lane by Fahey (5 assists, 2 steals) and ended with a fastbreak layup by the sophomore guard.

In between, there was a 3-pointer and 2 free throws from Collins, who reached her career high.

"We talked about having more energy so we all just tried to play real good defense," Collins said. "We were being aggressive with our press and going for steals. We really wanted to get our first conference win."

The Huskies are 1-1 in the East and 5-4 overall while Wheeling stands at 4-5 and 0-2.

Senior Brianna Luciano contributed her career-high with 9 points, including 7-of-8 free throws, plus a pair of key steals.

"Brianna hustled, and had deflections, baskets and rebounds," Fendley said. "She just contributed so much as a spark for us. And Emily was really solid the whole game on both ends of the court."

Senior Maddie Jacobson added 12 points for Hersey while junior Janine Boyan (7 points) led Hersey with 7 rebounds.

Wheeling's scoring came from four players - Nosa Igiehon (14 points), Chloe Drozdz (11), Morgan Collar (8 points) and Sophia Stanke (8 points).

"What really hurt was when Nosa picked up her third foul (midway through third quarter)," said Wheeling coach Matt Weber. "That put us in a lot of trouble defensively and after that I thought our defense really broke down and Hersey was able to take advantage.

"In the first quarter, I thought we had a real nice inside-outside game and in the second half we lost some of those things. We just have to learn how play four quarters of basketball."

Hersey is tied for second with Rolling Meadows, Buffalo Grove and Elk Grove in the East.

"We started 0-1 last year, too and ended up winning (the East)," Fendley said. "It's a 10-game season."