THE SKINNY
After rallying from an 18-point fourth-quarter deficit Friday night against Lyons, No. 21 Hersey led from start to finish in the championship game Saturday night at Wheaton North’s 30th annual Neibch Holiday Classic. The top-seeded Huskies (14-1) won their seventh consecutive game and their fifth tournament title. Hersey’s last championship came in 2010.
TURNING POINT
Sixth-seeded Hinsdale Central (9-4) played its first full game without starting senior forward Maddie Roglich, who injured her right knee Friday night against Downers North. Hersey scored the game’s first eight points and went on an 8-2 run to extend its lead to 16-4. Hersey won its second tournament of the season following a win at Hoffman Estates over Thanksgiving.
THE STAR
Senior forward Morgan Harris scored 23 points, including 9-of-10 at the free- throw line, to lead Hersey. She came within two points of equaling her season high while scoring 16 points in the second. All of her free throws came in the second half. Harris had the big final game, but freshman Claire Gritt and junior Annie Korff were named to the all-tournament team for Hersey.
BY THE NUMBERS
Junior Gabrielle Rush scored a game-high 25 points and had eight rebounds while getting named to the all-tournament team for Hinsdale Central. She scored 13 points in the first half while the rest of her teammates scored four points before the break. Rush had all but one basket in the first half for her team before Payton Katich’s putback with 55 seconds to go in the first half.
QUOTABLE
“Yesterday we started off a little slow. We were down by a lot. We didn’t want that to happen again.” — Harris
