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Hersey posts win over Barrington

While playing club basketball in Egypt, Hersey's Aya El-Fiky was used to playing with a 24-second shot clock when the offense moved into the frontcourt.

The way the sophomore exchange student was scoring in the second quarter on Saturday night at Barrington, a shot clock would never have come into play.

El-Fiky jumped off the bench and scored 8 points in a span of three minutes midway thought the second quarter.

Her 2 free throws with 3:34 left in the first half gave the Huskies a 23-13 lead.

Hersey never let Barrington closer than 9 points en route to a 59-41 Mid-Suburban League crossover win.

El-Fiky finished with a career-high 13 points, one less than her classmate Mary McGrath, who scored 14 for the third straight game.

"I think Mary really took things upon herself with MK (sophomore Mary Kate Fahey, who has a wrist injury) being out," said Hersey coach Mary Fendley. "They've played together since grade school (90-10 record in four years at St. James in Arlington Heights).

"So to her credit, Mary took the initiative knowing we needed some scoring to compensate for MK's absence."

Fendley hopes Fahey can return within three weeks."

El-Fiky's previous best was an 11-point game against Mother McAuley.

"Aya looked really good," Fendley said. "She was strong, took the ball to the basket well and had some strong rebounds.

"Once we got going in the second quarter (17-6 run to close half) I felt we did a nice job not letting down after playing a conference game the night before. We did do that the previous weekend in a Saturday game."

Emily Collins and Janine Boyan each chipped in 8 points for Hersey (8-5) while Maddie Jacobson had 7.

"In practice we go over the things that teams are going to do to us so we can adapt to them in the game," said McGrath, whose older sisters (triplets) were on the team last year.

"My teammates have been very welcoming. My sister probably helped with that, too. I learned from them to be aggressive on defense. The offense starts from the defense."

It was a steal by Collins that led to her layup and a 4-0 lead. Jacobson followed with 2 free throws and a fastbreak layup to make it 8-0 with 4:54 left in the opening quarter.

"Hersey is well coached and their kids play hard, but we played hard tonight too," said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. "We missed some shots off good looks in the first half, but the looks were there so that is encouraging. We had some youth out there tonight, and the process takes time. We will get there."

Freshman Laura Mahlum led the Fillies (3-9) with 11 points while classmate Sydney Granby collected 6 rebounds with 4 points.

"I thought Laura Mahlum and Sydney Granby did some nice things offensively," Barreiro said. "You can see that with every game they are getting more and more comfortable and are contributing at both ends of the floor. Katie Tomczyk (8 points) came off the bench and had some nice minutes for us which was great to see."

Barrington junior Taylor Thompson did not play due to a foot injury.

"Overall, Hersey beat up on us on the boards, and frankly I thought that hurt us all game long," Barreiro said. "They had too many second and third opportunities. Granted, we missed Taylor on the boards but we have to do a better job of boxing out."

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