Buffalo Grove turns over Batavia

You don't have to go to MIT to know a team can win a lot of basketball games by forcing turnovers.

Buffalo Grove senior Nick Prus is going to MIT, and among many, many more challenging concepts, he knows a team can win a lot of basketball games by forcing turnovers.

The Bison turned eight of their 17 steals into breakaway layups Monday against Batavia in the opening round of the 36th annual Elgin Holiday Tournament. Batavia committed 22 turnovers in the Bison's 72-52 victory.

Buffalo Grove's (8-2) fifth straight win sends the Bison into the quarterfinals at 8 p.m. Tuesday against Wheaton North, a 40-37 winner of Highland Park.

Prus, led the way with 21 points, a number still 14 shy of the 35 he got on the ACT.

“We always want to emphasize defense first,” Prus said. “We want to pressure teams and cause those turnovers because those defensive turnovers transition to offensive points. We're a high-scoring team, we like to keep it that way, we work hard to get those turnovers.”

Buffalo Grove coach Ryan O'Connor scouted Batavia (5-5) against Larkin and knew he didn't want a half-court game with the Bulldogs' 6-foot-6 Elliott Vaughn and 6-5 Cole Gardner inside. O'Connor inserted 6-6 Kevin Tennenbaum into his starting lineup to combat Batavia's size.

“We wanted to get an up-and-down tempo,” O'Connor said. “We thought we'd have difficulty with their size if we got into a half-court smash-mouth game. We were able to do that defensively. We got in the passing lanes, got some transition points, and I thought that was the tale of the game.”

Batavia held an 18-16 after the first quarter behind senior Jesse Coffey's 10 points. A key play came in the closing seconds when Gardner was called for his second foul on a charge.

Buffalo Grove capitalized with Gardner on the bench the entire in the second quarter. Jeff Zabrin scored 12 of his 17 points in the first half as the Bison built a 34-26 halftime lead they never relinquished.

Zabrin led the defensive pressure with 5 steals. Center Sam Wacker (9 points, 7 rebounds) added 3 steals and earned O'Connor's praise: “Sam was huge for us taking up space, blocking shots and rebounding.”

Dan Recht came off the bench with 4 steals and like Prus is another player that excels off the court with a 32 on his ACT.

“They are basketball smart as well and very experienced,” O'Connor said. “When we had the lead I thought we made good decisions with the basketball. It's a tribute to those kids getting it done in the classroom as well.”

Many of Batavia's turnovers came trying to pound the ball inside to their big men and the Bison were able to tip the passes away.

“We've got to value the basketball,” Roberts said. “We've got to get better and entering, we've got to better at receiving.”

“We just have to handle pressure better,” Coffey said.

“My teammates did a good job of finding me early. Things kind of broke down in the second half but we'll come back and be better.”

Down 39-29 in the third quarter, Batavia went on an 11-2 run to pull within 41-40 on Coffey's jumper.

Prus had the answer for Buffalo Grove with one of his four 3-pointers. Luke Potnick followed with another 3 and Prus drove for a 3-point play. The 9 quick points put Buffalo Grove comfortably back on top 50-40 going to the fourth quarter.

“I was proud of the way our kids came back but when you do that there can't be any letup and there was and they made us pay the price,” Batavia coach Jim Roberts said.

Buffalo Grove scored the first six points of the fourth quarter and pushed its lead to as much as 22 before baskets by Batavia's John Douglas and Joe Sortino in the final minute.

Coffey led Batavia with 16 points. Vaughn had 9 points and 10 rebounds.

The Bulldogs will try to repeat their feat last year when they also lost their opener and came back to win the consolation championship. They play Highland Park at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“We're really up and down right now,” Coffey said. “We have to find some consistency and come back these next three games and show what we're made of.”