Short-handed Huskies Beat York In Boys Hoops

No Ka’Darryl Bell? No problem.

Playing without its injured star guard, the boys basketball team used a big second half to beat visiting York 57-40 in the West Suburban Conference Silver Division Tuesday night.

The Huskies (5-1, 2-0) led 24-23 at intermission, then outscored the visitors 33-17 in the second half.

“The second-half performance was phenomenal,” OPRF coach Matt Maloney said.

York (3-3, 0-2) held a 36-35 edge late in the third quarter when OPRF seized control. The Huskies took off on an 11-0 run, which included an alley-oop dunk by Gabe Levin off a pass by Jakari Cammon.

“It was a perfect pass,” said Levin.

Levin scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half.

“Gabe kind of put us on his back in certain stretches,” Maloney said of his 6-foot-7 senior.

Senior forward Alex Nesnidal led OPRF in scoring with a career-high 19 points. He made four 3-pointers.

“We needed someone to step up,” Levin said. “He stepped up.”

“Last game I got a lot of open shots and I missed a lot of my 3s,” Nesnidal said. “I was pretty (ticked) off because that’s my role on the team, a shooter, and today I just tried to maintain my confidence and get more shots up, and the shots started falling.”

Cammon added 12 points.

Thanks in part to the defense of Alex Gustafson, the Huskies held York’s leading scorer, David Cohn, scoreless in the second half. The sharpshooting guard finished with 10 points. Matt DiFrancesca’s 11 points paced the Dukes.

“To hold them to 17 points in a half of basketball and to not let a guy as good as Cohen score, it’s a tribute to the guys,” Maloney said.

The Huskies have their fingers crossed as Bell has his right hand examined by a specialist today. The Bradley recruit suffered a wrist injury in the first quarter of Saturday’s 54-44 loss to Downers Grove South. The Huskies aren’t sure when he’ll return.

“We don’t exactly know, but hopefully it’s good news because if it’s a sprain we can get him back pretty quick,” Maloney said.

The Huskies got things done a bit differently in Bell’s absence.

“Ka’Darryl can get to the rack at any time,” Levin said. “We just have to move the ball a lot more and use our offense.”

“It’s a big loss, obviously,” Nesnidal said. “He’s a high Division I player. It takes a lot away from the team, but we’ve got players on the bench who are ready to step up. Honestly, I didn’t see a difference tonight. He brings a lot more offense, but the defense was the same. It was a great team effort.”

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