Buffalo Grove 54, Marshall 52

For a team with state title aspirations, Friday evening was the perfect test for the Bison.

Coming off an emotional win over Fenwick on Thursday, Buffalo Grove girls basketball coach Tom Dineen saw the matchup with Marshall as a great measuring stick for his team's postseason readiness.

While the action on the court was not exactly what Dineen had hoped to see, he was happy to come away with a win.

"We overcame foul trouble, poor free throw shooting, poor ball-handling and poor defensive rebounding and we still won," Dineen said. "So not being at the top of our game and being able to come out with a victory against Marshall, we'll take it."

Maggie Mocchi had 26 points and 6 rebounds for Buffalo Grove (18-1), which beat Marshall 54-52 in the fourth game of the City-Suburban Shootout at Attack Athletics.

The Bison shot 14 of 26 from the free throw line, turned the ball over 15 times and were outrebounded 38-16. Key starters Ellen Ayoub (4 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals) and Allison Mocchi (6 points, 2 steals) fouled out.

"It wasn't a perfect game," Maggie Mocchi said. "We missed some important shots but I think we did enough to win. That's all that's important."

The Bison led 47-37 with 5:28 left in the fourth quarter but struggled to put the game away. The Commandos (11-6) repeatedly grabbed offensive rebounds and Buffalo Grove helped by missing several key free throws.

Marshall made it a one-possession game in the final two minutes and threatened to take the lead before Katie Lee came off the bench to nail a pair of freebies with 19.9 seconds left to give Buffalo Grove a 4-point lead.

The Bison have now won two straight, including a 52-47 win over Fenwick, which had dealt Buffalo Grove its sole loss of the season on Dec. 29 at Dundee-Crown's holiday tournament.

"(Friday) night was pretty emotional and stressful," Dineen said. "We spent a lot of energy last night. To come back and have to do it again, I wanted to see how we would be. If we have any ambition of getting to the state tournament, you're going to get two tough games back-to-back in 24 hours."

While Maggie Mocchi admitted feeling relieved after squeaking past the Commandos, she pointed out that her team has now proven it has what it takes for a title run.

"We beat a good team, so I guess our confidence is up a little bit. It proves that we can play with the best teams in the state," she said. "This is exactly like the state tournament. We had a tough game (Friday), and then we came out here and played another hard game. I think it proved that we can do it."

Kaitlin Hillner had 8 points and Lauren Angotti added 4 points and 2 blocks for the Bison, which hit 2 of 15 three-pointers. Buffalo Grove took only two 3's after halftime and hit 10 of 18 shots in the second half.

Terranika Reynolds scored 17, Tatiana Walker had 14 and Sarah Rogers added 10 for Marshall.