Bison stop horsing around

It took Buffalo Grove about 16 minutes and one second to get started.

Once the Bison finally got rolling, there was nothing anyone could do to stop them Wednesday night.

BG (2-0) took a 31-27 lead into halftime and came out of the locker room a different team. Brian DeSimone scored 14 of his team-high 18 points in the third quarter, and the Bison cruised to a 69-48 victory over Holy Trinity in the Bison Classic boys basketball tournament.

"We'd hope that would be the first quarter," said BG coach Ryan O'Connor. "There were two ways you could go. The kids responded to their frustration."

The frustration, according to O'Connor and DeSimone came from not playing the kind of defense necessary to control the game.

"It looked like we were playing a game of 'horse' in the first half," O'Connor said. "We were letting them tee-up their shots, and we can't do that."

"We wanted to focus on defense," DeSimone said. "We came down (to the locker room) a little frustrated by the way we played in the first half. We made that a point in the second half."

The Bison opened with an 18-0 run, 12 of which were scored by DeSimone, and outscored the Tigers 27-5 in the quarter and led 58-32.

"I didn't say anything specific to him," O'Connor said. "He's a senior and has been around for four years."

The Bison wasted a 22-11 second-quarter lead, thanks to a 16-5 run that tied the game at 27 with 1:07 left in the half. The Tigers' surge was sparked by the game's leading scorer, Von-Julius Wright (21 points). Wright scored 10 points in the quarter. Mike Ricciardi scored 7 of his 14 points in the second quarter for BG.

A basket by Kevin Mulligan (10 points) and 2 DeSimone free throws gave the Bison their 31-27 halftime lead.

"We committed the cardinal sin," O'Connor said. "We allowed them to get confident in the first half."

The second half took care of that.