Buffalo Grove moves ahead with a victory

Buffalo Grove's boys basketball program received bad news Thursday when it learned that guard and leading scorer Jack Vaselaney would most likely be lost for the rest of the season with mononucleosis.

But instead of rolling over Friday against host Hersey, the Bison showed how they can push forward.

Buffalo Grove hit a blistering 13-of-15 shots to open the game and never looked back as the Bison rolled over the Huskies 72-53 in Arlington Heights.

The victory kept Buffalo Grove (11-8, 4-3) in contention in the MSL East. It also knocked Hersey (11-9, 5-2) out of a first place tie with Prospect, which beat Rolling Meadows 62-46.

Buffalo Grove coach Keith Peterson said that he wasn't sure how his team would respond without Vaselaney.

"We don't know what is going to happen with him (Vaselaney)," Peterson said. "But the guys took the challenge and ran with it.

"We did a great job of getting the ball to the rim to start the game. We had 4 or 5 layups to start, and that makes the whole rim look bigger when those layups are going in."

Leading the way with those layups was 6-foot-6 Mac Camardo.

With his team leading 21-15 with 5:48 left in the first half, Camardo hit 3 consecutive layups as the Bison scored 13 unanswered points to close out the quarter with a 34-15 lead at the break.

"I thought our guards did a good job of finding me down low," said Camardo, who finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds. "We had a great inside-out game. Our 3-point game was amazing."

With Hersey trying to take the inside game of Buffalo Grove away, the Bison began to launch from the outside. Zach Fricke and Colin Calcagno each nailed 5 three-pointers to keep Hersey off balance.

Fricke, who did not practice all week due to a concussion, came off bench to score 18 points, felt great shooting from the outside.

"I was shooting every day in practice - my legs felt very fresh," said Fricke. "Obviously I was not conditioning all week and I missed my finals. I am making them up right now."

Calcagno also shot well from the field and finished with 17 points.

"We are a pretty good shouting team," Calcagno said. "We shoot a lot of 3s and tonight they were going in."

Hersey, which had scored just 2 points in the second quarter, put together a rally early in the third quarter. Led by Chris O'Toole, who scored 9 of his 19 points during a 92-second span, the Huskies got to within 11 at 35-24.

A 3-point play by Buffalo Grove's Caleb Mayhorn and 3s by Calcagno and Fricke, and suddenly it was 47-29 and the Bison were on their way.

"It was a very good night for them," Hersey coach Steve Messer said. "I was still happy, because our guys showed a lot of fight, even to the end."

Demetri Lomnick had 9 points for Buffalo Grove while Mayhorn finished with 7 points.

Joey Coffaro finished with 17 points for Hersey, but didn't score until there was 3:03 left in the third quarter.