New postseason life for Hoffman Estates

Playoff time is like a second season for teams. And nobody needed a second season more than Hoffman Estates.

The Hawks ended a 12-game losing streak and rallied past Buffalo Grove 70-59 Monday in the opening round of the Class 4A Fremd boys basketball regional in Palatine.

Hoffman Estates (6-19) which is seeded 16th in the Barrington sectional, will meet second-seeded Lake Park Wednesday at 6 p.m. Lake Park beat Hoffman 53-33 in mid January.

But it was a different Hawks team on Monday, and coach Luke Yanule was pleased with what he saw.

"I saw in the kids' eyes when we were up 4 and up 6, 'We got this,' " Yanule said. "I am extremely proud of the collective effort of this group."

Jorden Thornton, who struggled early, led the attack for the Hawks with 21 points including 13-for-13 from the free throw line - including all 11 in the fourth quarter.

"You almost have that mentality where you are used to losing," Thornton said. "But we came out into the game with a lot of energy. We never gave up on ourselves, we always believed."

Brandon Hall, whose play on both ends of the court sparked a 10-point comeback, had 17 points and 10 rebounds.

"We finished off the season not on a good note," Hall said. "So I tried to come into this game motivated and a bit angry to do what I could to change that."

But it didn't come easily to Thornton, Hall and the rest of the Hawks.

Thanks to some early bombs by Colin Calcagno, 18th-seeded Buffalo Grove was able to open up an 18-8 advantage late in the first quarter.

The Bison (6-21), who start two sophomores and a freshman, led 29-20 with 2:14 left in the first half. But that's when the Hawks turned up the pressure.

Hoffman scored the final 8 points on the second half thanks to 3 Buffalo Grove turnovers. The Hawks then scored the first 6 points of the second half, forcing 2 turnovers in the process to lead 34-29 with 4:57 left in the quarter.

Buffalo Grove made a charge of its own, closing to 37-36 with 2:00 left in the quarter on Calgano's fifth 3-pointer of the game. But Hoffman ran off the next 7 points on its way to a 17-5 run to put the game away.

"This was the first game all year that we made our free throws late, beat traps and executed well," Yanule said. "We did all the little things well. We lost 19 games, and 12 of them by 7 points or less. All those little things. We shored them up well tonight."

Buffalo Grove coach Keith Peterson said the fast start helped his team, but said the 20 turnovers were costly.

"That is exactly the start we wanted," Peterson said. "We just did not have a consistent enough effort out there."

Curtis Palucska came off the bench to score 7 points for Hoffman while Dante Cleveland had 6 points and Lamont McIntosh added 5 points.

Calgano led Buffalo Grove with 15 points. Collin Dekorsi had 14 points, Hans Haller 12 and Connor May 6.