Niles North battles past Buffalo Grove

Eight iron Bison.

That's all that were left standing, and for three quarters Thursday against undefeated Niles North in Wheeling's Hardwood Classic, they stood tall.

Then, gassed after trying to keep up Niles North's fierce pace, they saw their virtual game-long lead evaporate into a 70-62 Vikings victory.

Niles North advances to a championship semifinal at 7:15 p.m. Friday, while Buffalo Grove gets bumped into the fifth-place bracket for a 3:45 p.m. matchup against Geneva.

The Bison lost starting center Mac Camardo and guard Caleb Mayhorn early on. They had combined for 11 of Buffalo Grove's first 23 points when Mayhorn went down hard on a drive to the basket. He landed squarely on his back and lay there in pain after scoring, to the dismay of a Buffalo Grove crowd screaming for a foul and a bewildered Buffalo Grove bench scratching its collective head. Regardless, Mayhorn would not return and is questionable at best for Friday.

Camardo, meanwhile, was unfortunately underneath a high-flying Viking who came down with an elbow to his face, leaving him bleeding profusely. He was in need of stitches and is out at least Friday. Camardo had 6 points on 3-of-3 shooting around the basket, and Niles North had not contained him when he exited for good in the first quarter.

That left Buffalo Grove scrambling players into positions, leaving them suddenly outmanned and undersized.

For a while though, they didn't miss a beat.

"I could not have been more proud of the guys," said Buffalo Grove coach Keith Peterson. In his fifth season, Peterson has had several of these players since they were freshmen.

"Credit Buffalo Grove. They hit shots. They played incredibly hard," said Glenn Olson, the coach of unbeaten Niles North (11-0).

For three quarters, the Bison had Niles North somewhat flustered, building a lead as big as 15 points when guard Jack Vaselaney (13 points), beleaguered and often double-teamed all game long, scored on a drive to make it 27-12 in the second quarter.

His teammates, rotating in and out regularly for rest and to protect against foul trouble, kept finding ways to hold the lead despite being badly outrebounded in the second half and committing twice as many turnovers.

The bench, which scored 33 points to Niles North's 12, was paced by Zach Fricke (12 points) and sophomore Nathan Cole (11) from the perimeter and Brendan Reid, standing in ably for Camardo, in the middle.

But a tiring BG team couldn't keep up with speedy Niles North after the third quarter, which the Bison entered with a 47-44 lead.

A pressing defense kept giving Niles North opportunity baskets in transition as Dravon Clayburn exploded for 17 of his game-high 22 points in the period. Damaria Franklin added 5 of his 21. Vaselaney had 7 of his 13 in the quarter while trying to keep BG in it. But 6 free throws in the period between Clayburn and Aquan Smart (11 points) managed to help Niles North fend off the Bison (7-6).

Peterson managed to put his finger on the primary reasons for the defeat. "We had guys in different spots," he noted. "We take pride over the years in our depth. Some guys really stepped up."

That would be Reid, Fricke, Zack Sheasby and Tom Trieb.

That wasn't lost on Olson, who said, "We didn't hit shots. We got in a hole a little bit. The story is Buffalo Grove."

The victory, though, was Niles North's.