Bison have field day on defense

Buffalo Grove didn't make a field goal in the final 5 minutes and 30 seconds of Saturday night's Mid-Suburban League boys basketball crossover at Hoffman Estates.

The way the Bison were playing defense and shooting free throws, they didn't have to.

BG's stifiling 'D" shut down the Hawks attack, and the Bison hit 13 free throws down the stretch to record a 53-45 victory.

"I was pleased with our defense," said BG coach Ryan O'Connor. "We came out with a lot of energy.

"Hoffman Estates is a great team, and they came in off an emotional win last night (at Schaumburg)."

Buffalo Grove senior Mike Ricciardi scored a game-high 17 points, while Luke Mead of Hoffman scored 15, including 3 fourth-quarter 3-pointers.

"We're a good team," said Hoffman coach Bill Wandro, "but if you want to be a great team, you've got to win these Saturday night games after winning Friday night.

"You've also got to take your opponent more seriously. I thought mentally we were immature, and physically we got beat up by a team that's superior to us."

Six-foot-3 senior Federico Iudica, a foreign exchange student from Italy in his first year at BG, provided an early spark with 7 first-quarter points.

"I was getting some great passes underneath the basket," said Iudica.

BG (5-1) led 27-21 at halftime and increased the advantage to 9 points with 5:30 left when Iudica (12 points) nailed a 3.

Then 2 long-range bombs from Mead brought Hoffman within 41-38.

"You can't give a player like that open looks," said O'Connor. "He's a gifted shooter, and they've got some other good shooters as well."

But that was as close as the Hawks (4-1) could get as Ricciardi sank 5-of-6 free throws down the stretch, while sophomore Kevin Mulligan hit all 6 of his fourth-quarter attempts.

"We put a big emphasis on free-throw shooting," said Mulligan.

Senior guard Brian DeSimone scored 10 for the Bison. Ben Collins and Tom Dombrowski added 8 points apiece for the Bison.

"We got to within 3," said Wandro, "but we couldn't close the door, and that's a testament to the leadership of a couple of guys on Buffalo Grove."

Schaumburg 61, Nicolet (Wis.) 59: MILWAUKEE -- It's hard to blame the Schaumburg boys basketball team for looking a little sluggish during the Saxons' 61-59 win over Glendale (Wis.) Nicolet at the Terry Porter Classic on Saturday afternoon.

Just a day earlier Schaumburg was edged 56-52 by rival Hoffman Estates, and Saturday's snowy bus ride to Milwaukee South Division High School took 2½ hours.

"We had a tough conference game last night," said Schaumburg coach Bob Williams. "And (when) you end up losing it's kind of tough to come back from that. And we had (a long) bus ride.

"We had lots of reasons but that doesn't hold any weight. Once you step on the floor you've got to play. I think we finally figured that out in the fourth quarter. We got some emotion going (and we) played a lot better."

The Saxons (4-2) escaped their trip north with a win, thanks to the late-game heroics of junior guard Cully Payne. The DePaul recruit calmly buried a 14-foot jumper in the lane with 30 seconds left to tie the score at 59-59.

Nicolet turned over the ball on its next possession with 9.3 seconds left. Payne then took the inbound pass, ran the length of the floor, and was fouled on a layup attempt with 2.1 seconds left.

He drained both free throws and Nicolet failed to get another shot off before the final horn sounded.

"I was going to win it or lose it for us," said Payne. "(The pressure of making the free throws) didn't bother me."

The Knights (1-2) trailed 28-26 at halftime, but put together a 12-3 run at the end of the third quarter. The outburst culminated in a runner in the lane by Torrance Smith that gave Nicolet a 44-38 lead.

Schaumburg chipped away at the lead in the fourth quarter. A 3-point play on an acrobatic layup by junior guard Perrish Bell, who finished with 14 points, pulled the Saxons within 52-51 with 3:44 left.

A free throw by Brandon Bolger, who also scored 14 points, with 1:47 left tied the game at 57-57. Nicolet held a 59-57 edge after a pair of free throws by Smith with 57.8 remaining.

"(We want to) get the heck out of Wisconsin before they take the win back," said Williams. "It was like we had a monkey on our back from last night.

"They were kind of down. And in the fourth quarter that lifted. I think we learned something about our team enthusiasm, so I'm excited about that."

-- Dan Murphy

Palatine 42, Hersey 40: You can feel the new confidence weaving its way through Palatine's boys basketball roster.

The Pirates have the mark of a contender. They make plays at crunch time. They hit big shots. They're focused.

It certainly looked that way Saturday night as they held off visiting Hersey in a Mid-Suburban League crossover 42-40.

In a literal seesaw game, the Pirates (3-2) got huge plays down the stretch from 6-foot-9 center Josh Rustman, whose basket inside on a nice feed from John Castellano provided the last points of the night with just over a minute to go.

He finished with a team-high 14 points and paired with 6-6 fellow senior Monroe Brooks to create a powerful force inside that enabled the Pirates to otherwise offset Hersey's size. They combined for 25 points and helped the Pirates out-rebound the Huskies 28-19.

Their key contribution was taking turns on Hersey's all-area standout Luke Fabrizius.

With help from 6-4 Ron Lampen, who fouled out, the 6-9 Fabrizius, one of the sweetest touches in the state, was limited to 9 points and took just 3 shots in the second half. However, he helped keep Hersey (3-3) close by blocking 7 shots and altering others.

"Coach told us to step it up at halftime," said Brooks, after Palatine let a virtual first half-long lead slip away. "We came out with a lot of energy."

And togetherness. He and Rustman aren't always on the court at the same time, but against Hersey's size, they were needed.

"We've been playing together since seventh grade," said Brooks of their familiarity with each other.

"We had to keep taking a look knowing where he was, helping out on him," said Rustman of Fabrizius.

Instead, 6-1 senior guard Griffin Dwyer stepped up and poured in 20 for Hersey, shooting them ahead at halftime with a buzzer-beating 3 and keeping it close from the perimeter in the second half.

Still, the Huskies had a chance to tie it as time was expiring, but Demitriy Velikov couldn't get a runner to fall and Fabrizius' tip attempt from a tough angle came up well short of climbing over the rim.

Hersey coach Steve Messer felt his club got a good look at the end but just couldn't get it to fall. He also liked his team's hustle and intensity after the previous evening's emotional East Division win over Rolling Meadows.

"The energy level was high, our intensity was good," he added.

"We're out of synch offensively," said Palatine coach Ed Molitor. "(But) our defense did a good job of getting us some points back. It came down to gut-check time and we got it done."

-- Howard Schlossberg