Buffalo Grove 79, Lake Zurich 75
Buffalo Grove's boys basketball team keeps passing milestones.
The Bison's latest victory, a 57-41 win over Lake Zurich in the Palatine regional final, gave BG its third consecutive Regional title and marks its fourth consecutive 20-win season.
Fifth-seeded Buffalo Grove (20-8) will play in the Barrington sectional Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. against No. 1 Zion-Benton, which beat Mundelein 79-75 for the Libertyville regional title.
The Bison targeted the 14-seeded Bears' top scoring threats, juniors Connor Mooney and Brandon Kunz, and their pressure defense did the trick. They held Mooney to just 2 points through three quarters before he finished with 9 and allowed Kunz to score 12, all in the first three quarters.
"They were a hot team playing with a lot of momentum," said BG coach Ryan O'Connor. "Playing pressure defense and up-tempo offense is our strength, and it worked in our favor.
"The first half set the tone," O'Connor said. "And we made a nice run to start the second half."
Senior Brian DeSimone drew the assignment of guarding Mooney, and Mike Ricciardi had primary responsibility against Kunz. Neither neglected the offensive end, either. Ricciardi led all scorers with 14 points, and DeSimone finished with 11.
"We wanted to hold down Mooney and Kunz," DeSimone said. "They're the keys to their offense, and they were hot coming into the game."
"He's one of the best post players I've played against," Ricciardi said of Kunz. "He had some great post moves."
But the Bears (17-12) had a hard time getting him the ball in where he could do the most damage.
"We wanted to get the ball down to Brandon from 6 to 8 feet out, and we got it to him at 10-12 feet, which is little far out," said Lake Zurich coach John Zarr. "They did a good job making the game physical.
"I thought they did things physically to take us out of the things we do," Zarr said. "We had a hard time adjusting to it. And they did a good job of keeping us off the boards."
Buffalo Grove never trailed after jumping out to a 10-4 lead midway through the first quarter. The Bison led 15-11 after one quarter, 27-19 at halftime, and 40-30 after three.
Three-pointers by Chris Timberg (11 points) and Paul Timko (12) to start the second half gave the Bison their biggest lead to that point, 33-19, but the Bears answered with a pair of baskets by Andy Garlisch (12 points), that sparked them to an 11-3 run that cut the lead to 36-30. Kunz capped the run with a steal at halfcourt and a thunderous dunk with 4:40 left in the third.
"With those two shut down, I felt I had to step it up a little," said Garlisch. "They came out with more energy than us. I don't know what happened."
That was as close as the Bears would get the rest of the way. BG converted 12 of 17 from the foul line in the fourth quarter, while killing huge chunks of time off the clock.