Buffalo Grove pulls away from Maine West
Monday night's Maine West-Buffalo Grove quarterfinal matchup at the Dundee-Crown Charger Classic lived up to the legacy of battles gone by between two of the Northwest suburbs' legendary girls basketball programs.
Separated by just 2 slender points at halftime, BG took command around the rim on the play of Sammy Stejskal and the overall floor play of sharpshooter Maddie Welter to score a 60-44 win and move into Tuesday's 6:30 p.m. semifinal against Stevenson.
The Bison managed to pull away from a 29-27 halftime edge by outrebounding the taller Warriors 18-10 in the second half and clamping down on defense to the tune of limiting Maine West (10-5) to 6-of-27 shooting in the final two quarters.
BG coach Steve Kolodziej challenged his team at halftime after being outrebounded badly in the first half.
"We made the choice to rebound," he stated simply.
High scorer Stejskal (25 points) took it a step further.
"We made the choice to box out. It was definitely our rebounding," that made the second-half difference, she said.
And the choice to shoot better, and smarter. Stejskal hit all but one of her six second-half shot attempts, including a fastbreak layin, a jumper and a free throw after being fouled on a drive.
She continued it into the fourth quarter, extending BG's lead to double digits, hitting from inside and then on a drive for a 50-38 lead. By the time the sharpshooting Welter hit her only bucket of the second half, BG had a comfortable lead, although her ability to force turnovers and set up teammates did not go unnoticed.
"Her IQ, in basketball, is off the charts," said Kolodziej, noting that she knows when to shoot and when not to. She only attempted three second-half shots after hitting a trio of 3-pointers and scoring 11 of her 16 points in the first half.
"She contributes in so many ways," said Stejskal. "She handles the ball so well, gets us set up."
And hits NBA length 3-pointers, as she did in the first half. Meanwhile, off the bench, Megan Gamber complemented her with two 3-pointers and Kendall Prochaska, filling in for foul-laden Natali Dimitrova, put down a pair of fastbreak layups on nice feeds from Welter. Stejskal enjoyed seeing everyone got involved.
"Everyone can contribute," right up and down the roster, she said.
Head coach Derril Kipp, however, didn't feel he got that kind of performance from his Warriors, who were missing three regulars for varying reasons.
"We didn't execute. We took ourselves out of a lot of things we like to do," he noted, and missed some bunnies as well.
However, the Warriors' young lineup served notice of things to come, with a junior, two sophomores and a freshman starting.
The freshman, Rachel Kent, looked smooth around the basket, scoring 12 points, and sophomore Catherine Johnson paced Maine West with 15 points, including a rare 4-point play.
"We'll be better after break," Kipp said of getting his roster back intact.
BG, however, now 10-2 and on an 8-game winning streak, should be better by default.
"We're fortunate," said Kolodziej. "We've got a lot of kids that can step up and score."