Boys basketball: Hersey’s late run beats Prospect, gives Widlowski 400th win

Brody Variano and Charlie Pomis were pleasantly surprised to learn they were part of history for first-year Hersey boys basketball coach Bob Widlowski.

Pomis’ precision second-half shooting en route to a game-high 16 points and Variano’s gritty defense typified the way Widlowski’s teams have played for 23 years. And an 18-0 run in the final 5:10 gave the Huskies a 51-36 victory and Widlowski the 400th of his career in the Mid-Suburban East opener over Prospect before a boisterous crowd at Jean Walker Field House.

“I’m so happy we were able to accomplish that tonight,” Pomis said after hitting all 5 of his shots and three 3-pointers for 13 points after halftime.

“He’s a pretty humble guy,” Variano said of Widlowski. “It’s cool because he’s got a great track record he’s brought to Hersey and that’s great for us.”

Hersey (5-0, 1-0) went 13-for-14 from the field in the second half to finish 19-for-32 overall (59.4%). Variano (8 points, 3 assists), with some help off the bench from Kyle Irwin and Caden Shah, dogged Prospect (2-3, 0-1) senior Ben Schneider through bruising screens all night and held the 16-point averager to 11 on 5-for-17 shooting.

And Widlowski, who won 395 games at Fremd, joins Conant’s Tom McCormack (552) and Fremd’s Mo Tharp (406) as the only boys coaches to win 400 games in a tenure at an MSL school or schools. Widlowski thanked assistant coaches like Ron Cregier, Mike Brown, Jason Hogrefe, Brian Smith and Luke Yanule, administrators Don Crandall and Jack Drollinger and mentors in Tharp, Ed Molitor and Bob Williams.

“It’s a personal achievement but a program accomplishment,” Widlowski said. “I didn’t want it to be a distraction (for the kids).”

Getting it wasn’t easy in a game neither team led by 5 points into the fourth. Prospect went up 36-33 at 5:43 when Colin Tucker raced up the floor with an inbound and found Will Stratigos for a layup. But Hupp’s short drive and Pomis’ 3 off a Logan Luxem feed put Hersey ahead to stay with 4:21 left.

“Defensively I thought we were really good for three quarters and then it kind of snowballed,” Prospect coach Brad Rathe said. “They smelled some blood in the water and exploited it.”

Irwin had a steal and 3-point play and baseline drive and Variano scored 6 points and found Hupp for a layup in the Huskies’ closing kick.

“Everyone has a huge part on this team,” Pomis said.

“We have so much depth,” Variano said. “When we use it, it’s so much fun.”

The Prospect (4-2, 1-0) girls won 33-29 as Alli Linke scored 8 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter and Zoe Black added 11. Kate Donovan had 14 for Hersey (5-2, 0-1).