Title tastes bittersweet

There were clearly mixed emotions Saturday night at Buffalo Grove.

Stevenson was enjoying a 46-40 victory over the hosts of the Bison Classic boys basketball Thanksgiving Tournament.

But the Patriots had to wait for the free-throw percentage tiebreaker results to be announced to determine the tourney champion.

They finished 3-1 with BG and Elgin, which rallied from a 9-point deficit in the final three minutes of regulation to beat Lakes 100-92 in overtime.

But BG won its third straight title as it made 76 percent of its free throws to 66 percent for Stevenson and 59 percent for Elgin.

"It was bittersweet," said BG senior all-tourney pick Mike Ricciardi, who had 7 points and drew 4 charging fouls.

"It's definitely tough the way it happened," Stevenson senior Michael Goldstein said after limiting BG all-tourney pick Brian DeSimone to 8 points on 2-for-11 shooting.

"It's a tough way to go out," said Stevenson senior Dylan Richter. "We were hoping Elgin would lose the game before and we thought it looked good.

"We just went out and played our best and hoped for the best. It's tough, but we're still happy about the game."

With good reason as Richter scored a game-high 16 points and had 14 rebounds to lead a commanding 32-11 advantage. The 6-foot-3 Richter also had a spectacular block to prevent a Ricciardi breakaway layup a minute into the fourth quarter.

BG shot just 30 percent from the field (13-for-43). It missed its first seven 3-point tries and finished 5-for-25.

"Mike did a great job on him (DeSimone)," Richter said of Goldstein.

"We really locked down on 'D,'" Goldstein said. "We really play team defense … and the team concept is what we do at Stevenson."

BG stayed in it by forcing 25 turnovers. Ricciardi drew a charge and DeSimone found Federico Iudica (12 points) for a 3 to cut the deficit to 38-36 with 2:16 left.

But after Ricciardi's block, Goldstein got a steal in the lane and combined with Richter, Henry Wood and all-tourney pick Kevin Stineman (9 points) to hit 8-of-10 free throws in the final 1:48.

"For us the Thanksgiving tournament isn't about a 20 dollar trophy," said BG coach Ryan O'Connor. "It's about finding out about our team and we found out a lot about our team the last 4 games. Stevenson was better than us tonight."