Roberts drops 42 as Hersey downs Buffalo Grove
Be it the NBA, college basketball or prep hoops, the COVID-19 pandemic has had its impact on everything from constant testing of players, coaches, and staff to reductions in both travel and schedules.
This past week it made its impact on the 2021 Mid-Suburban East division schedule as a trio of games were postponed as a result of health and safety guidelines set by the Illinois Department of Public Health that were not met for those contests to be played.
As a result, 2 of the 3 regularly scheduled games for Friday night: Buffalo Grove's visit to Prospect and Hersey's trip to Elk Grove were scuttled leaving both the Bison and the Huskies out in the cold until a decision was made Thursday to have the two schools face each other in a non-divisional match Friday night instead preserving their pair of regularly scheduled MSL East games in the process.
"We want the kids to play," Austin Scott, Hersey's third-year mentor said prior to tip-off, giving a tremendous amount of credit to both Hersey and Buffalo Grove administrations for being both 'creative and flexible' in making this game possible in addition to Prospect for serving as host.
Scott's squad took his thoughts to heart as it used a strong first half to build a big enough advantage that allowed them to hold off a fourth quarter Bison surge to obtain a 78-68 victory at Jean Walker Field House.
The Huskies (2-1) saw a 61-46 lead at the end of three periods of play nearly dissolve as a 12-0 tear by BG (1-2) brought them to within 3 (63-60) with 4:23 left on a putback by junior Kam Craft (team-high 40 points). But thanks to the charity stripe successes of Hersey senior guard Ethan Roberts that had him going a perfect 11 for 11 down the stretch, the Huskies would pull away for the win.
"We came off a (couple of) hard losses to them junior year and I made a promise to myself that I can't play like that," Roberts said.
The 6-foot-4 Roberts led all scorers with 42 points on 8 of 15 shooting that featured a 6 of 8 clip from beyond the arc, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists.
"I'm so happy to be playing with my brothers again," Roberts said.
For Buffalo Grove coach Keith Petersen, whose team will host the Huskies Tuesday in the first of those two MSL East contests, it's his team's youth and inexperience that have been prevalent early on.
"They (Hersey) shot great to start, they were executing stuff very well and we were a step behind," he said.