Calcagno's big finish helps Buffalo Grove past Wheeling
The stat line for Buffalo Grove's Colin Calcagno wasn't looking too good as his team trailed 51-47 with 27 seconds remaining.
He'd missed 6 of his 7 shot attempts, all of which had come from beyond the arc, and had scored only 3 points.
Some 20 seconds later, the 5-foot-11 junior guard's stats looked a whole lot better.
Calcagno hit a pair of 3s, including the game-winner with 7.2 seconds left, to help his team to a 53-52 victory over Wheeling's boys basketball team in ninth-place action at the 38th annual Wildcat Hardwood Classic on Saturday afternoon.
“My teammates trust me,” said Calcagno, who finished 3-for-9 from the field for 9 points. “I kept trying to give my team a chance to win.”
Wheeling (4-11) had one last chance in the closing seconds when junior guard Jalen Dennis (game-high 14 points) drove the lane and had his layup go in and the out of the basket as the horn sounded.
“Pat Szpir had made a nice ball screen, giving Jalen the opening to go down the lane, then he makes a nice layup that goes halfway down,” said first-year Wheeling coach Mike O'Keeffe. “I was about ready to go out on the court and give him a hug when it somehow went out.”
The outcome was a relief for Buffalo Grove.
“We needed this one,” said Bison coach Keith Peterson. “I talked about how we wanted to be competitive (5-8 on the year and 2-2 in the tournament) this week. I felt like we had only three bad quarters — the first against Waukegan, the fourth against Prospect and the fourth today. We were able to finish, however — and if we can play more like we did in those 13 quarters, we'll have an opportunity to be competitive in the second half of the season.”
“Competitive” certainly described the game. Both teams traded blows in an opening half that featured a combined 10 triples as the Bison took a 28-25 advantage into halftime behind 11 of the team-high 13 points from 6-foot-3 forward Joey Pinakidis. The Bison held an 8-point lead (their biggest) at 44-32 with 34 seconds left in the third on a reverse layup by Caleb Mayhorn.
A 3 from Hans Haller (12 points) made it 43-37 with 7:04 remaining when the Wildcats went on a 14-4 run to make the score 51-47 prior to Calcagno's heroics.
Free throw struggles by the host school down the stretch also aided the Buffalo Grove comeback, as Wheeling made 3 of its last 7 after making 3 of its first 4 in the final quarter.
“We're doing things the right way,” O'Keeffe said. “I told our kids that crazy things sometimes happen. I'm hoping that we'll learn from this, keep grinding, and it will all come along for us in the second half of the season.”
Both squads are 1-2 in MSL East play, 1 game behind Prospect, Elk Grove, and Hersey as conference action resumes Jan. 8.
Calcagno summed up the conference race and upcoming schedule thusly: “The East is wide open.”