Hinsdale South keeps momentum going with win at Addison Trail
Inconsistent to begin the season after the loss of an outstanding senior class, Hinsdale South got a breakthrough win on Jan. 11 against Proviso East.
The Hornets have kept up that momentum ever since, winning their third straight contest with a 55-41 road victory against Addison Trail on Friday.
Hinsdale South pulled to within one game of .500 at 9-10 while improving to 2-5 in the West Suburban Gold. The Blazers fell to 9-11, 0-7 in league play.
"We lost two of the best players in the history of the school in Robert Barnes and Zion Griffin," said Hinsdale South coach Brett Moore, whose team starts four juniors. "We really only had two guys back (Billy Durkin and Aaron Tims) with a lot of minutes. So we learned a lot of lessons early in the season.
"I thought our young guys stood up and did a nice job tonight. I'm really proud of them. Addison Trail runs great stuff, they play great defense and they play really smart and really hard. Every time we've been over here, it's a battle and tonight was no different."
That indeed was the case because despite the double-digit final deficit, Addison Trail was within 30-29 in the third quarter after an 11-3 run to start the second half.
The Hornets pushed that margin back to 5 by the end of the period and then began the fourth with an 11-2 spurt. James Ruzicka had 5 points over that stretch and Aaron Tims added 4. Tims finished with a team-high 15 points to go along with 4 blocked shots. Ruzicka had 11 points, hitting three 3-pointers, and 3 steals.
Hinsdale South also picked up its defense late, forcing the home team into 7 turnovers in the final quarter.
"We were coming off two good wins," Tims said. "We were really sharing the ball. We knew they would be focused on Billy (Durkin) and stopping the 3s and that they might double me a lot so we were looking for other guys to contribute.
"And we really buy in to defense all the time. (Hornets assistant coach Gary) Wolf does a great job getting us ready for that. We are ready for everything we see on the court from other teams. Everybody was communicating and in the right spots and we changed every shot we could."
Jason Williams also checked into double figures with 10 points for the Hornets, who trailed 6-0 at the outset before a 12-0 run to end the first quarter. Patrick Savage and Daeshawn Amy had 6 points apiece.
"Patrick had another great game tonight," Moore said. "He is one of those kids that won't always show up on the stat sheet but he just works his butt off and he took another charge."
The Blazers' Adem Mehmeti led all scorers with 18 points, including 9 in the third as Addison Trail fought back from a 27-18 halftime deficit. K'Vhon Pounds added 9 points.
"Hinsdale South was really tough on us," Addison Trail coach Brendan Lyons said. "They were really physical and we didn't respond well. It's happened a couple of times this year. There were spots where I thought we were OK and spots where we were really good. But overall if we can't handle pressure, we will continue to struggle."