Libertyville repeats at Buffalo Grove

The competition in the Bison Classic got stronger this year.

So did the defending champions.

Libertyville's girls basketball team won the six-team round-robin for the second straight season, going 5-0 after notching a 39-31 victory over Barrington (3-2) on Saturday afternoon at Buffalo Grove High School.

“This season, there was more competition,” said 5-foot-9 senior forward Kaca Savatic, who has played on Kathie Swanson's varsity the last three years. “The teams were stronger but we are stronger, too.”

Savatic had a strong tournament and was named to the all-tourney team along with classmate Savannah Trees and junior Alex Haley.

“We were going to win by playing tough defense,” said Haley. “We know that will create offense.”

Haley led the Wildcats' offense with 9 points, followed by Valerie Van Roeyen (8), Trees (7), Nicole Kruckman (6), Savatic (5) and Olivia Wilcox (4).

“This is a great start to be undefeated going into our conference game Tuesday (against Stevenson),” Trees said. “That's going to be a tough game.”

The Wildcats won a tough one over Barrington.

“There were a lot of quality teams in this tournament and Barrington was one of them,” Swanson said. “We knew they would keep pushing and come back after we got the lead on them. We had to keep sustaining and keep pushing.”

The Fillies pulled to within 32-29 on senior Abby Kirchoff's steal and layup with 2:58 left.

But Libertyville answered with 2 free throws by Van Roeyen, two by Trees and one by Savatic before Barrington scored again on a 10-footer by Kirchoff with only 26 seconds left.

Kirchoff led the Fillies with 11 points while classmate Sarah Mass added 8.

“Libertyville played really hard,” Mass said. “They go 100 percent for four quarters. If you don't come ready to match that, it's going to be hard to beat them as we found out.”

“Obviously, that start (10-0 deficit) put us in a pretty good hole but I was certainly happy with how we responded in the second half,” said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. “I am disappointed that we didn't bring that intensity for all four quarters. This is a senior group that knows better.”

The Fillies shot 12-for-43 from the floor.

“And we put them on the free throw line (16 of 20) too much,” Barreiro said. “We just lacked the intensity the first two quarters.”

Shelby Whigham helped the Fillies on the boards with 7 rebounds while Kirchoff had 4 steals.

“Overall the tournament was a good start for us,” Mass added. “We saw a lot of things we have to work on. We have new expectations for the season. We want to keep doing the good things we've done, and correct the bad.”

Coincidentally, Swanson and Barreiro each have an assistant coach who starred on the Buffalo Grove floor Melissa Gorski for Libertyville and Jennifer Guth for Barrington.

Brooke Chandor and Whigham were all-tourney selections for Barrington.

Swanson called the tournament a good challenge for her team to start the season.

“I thought this was a real team effort,” she added. “Kaca did a real good job containing their point guard. Valerie Van Roeyen doesn't get a lot of press but she stepped up with big shots when we needed them and with smart defense.”