Buffalo Grove hustles to beat Wheeling
The Wheeling Wildcats and Buffalo Grove Bison went back-and-forth until a third-quarter run.
The Bison ended up running away with the Mid-Suburban East boys basketball opener with a 54-40 victory Friday at Wheeling.
The second half started off with Wildcats senior center Mike Zimmer sinking a 3-pointer to tie the game at 28-28. After that the Bison never looked back as they had the edge in crashing the boards and getting to loose balls all throughout the third quarter.
The Bison ended up going on a 12-0 run and outscoring the Wildcats in the quarter 14-5.
"We went pretty deep in the bench, so it took awhile to get started," said Bison coach Ryan O' Connor. "These boys won in hustle points, fast breaks and in defense. They wanted to make a statement with this game, and you win when you have a deep bench."
The leading scorer for the Bison (5-0), junior forward Mike Cornely, got a lot of penetration and cashed in off of offensive rebounds with 17 points. Junior guard Kevin Mulligan also put up 17 points, but made his statement with 6-for-9 free throws.
On the defensive end, they also tallied 3 steals apiece. "In the second half, I felt we came with more pressure and intensity, and it worked out well for us," said Cornely, " We play a lot of aggressive defense and put pressure on all of their passes."
Three Wheeling (1-3) starters fell into foul trouble in the first quarter. However, they stayed with the Bison and sprouted their own 8-0 run in the beginning of the second quarter.
They obtained the lead for four minutes. But The blemish of rebounding was Wildcats' downfall for their loss.
"We played a good first half but we ran out of gas in the tank," said Wildcats coach Lou Wool, "Rebounding was the area we didn't do particularly well. We need to learn to be strong through adversity.
"We lost a lot of loose balls, but we learned a lesson and we can build from this."
BG plays Palatine at 7:30 p.m. today at Christian Liberty's Grace Gym in the Bob Frisk Sleighbell Classic.