Angotti delivers in clutch for Bison

John Angotti's running jumper with a little less than eight seconds to play broke a tie game to give Buffalo Grove a 52-50 Mid-Suburban East boys basketball victory over visiting Hersey on Friday night.

"We had a few seconds left to score, I had an opening on the right side so I just took it, and the ball went in the hoop," Angotti said.

The Bison had possession with about 35 seconds left and were winding the clock down for a final shot. An errant pass was nearly taken away by Hersey, and BG coach Ryan O'Connor almost called timeout at that point.

But when the Bison retained possession, he allowed play to continue without interruption.

"I think sometimes you've just got to let kids play," O'Connor said. "We've got to learn how to win in situations like that, and really, you don't do that if you continually try to diagram everything.

"Sometimes kids just have to learn to win on their own. Our kids did a nice job of that tonight."

Angotti was clutch in the fourth quarter, scoring 6 of his 10 points in the final frame.

"When James Hurley went out, I knew people had to step up," Angotti said. "I saw a lot of openings so I was trying to be aggressive and go to the hoop. And it worked for the most part."

Hurley injured his ankle in the second quarter and did not return to the game.

Hersey (3-5, 1-2) outscored BG (8-1, 2-1) in each of the first three quarters, but couldn't hold on in the final quarter where the Bison outscored the Huskies 19-12.

"I was really encouraged with our development as a defensive team," Hersey coach Steve Messer said. "I was really encouraged with our development as a rebounding team. I'm discouraged with our possessions in the fourth quarter."

The Huskies got a big game off the bench from Brad Busby. Busby's 14 points tied for the game's high-scoring honor with Buffalo Grove's Mike Cornely.

"He came in and knocked in a couple of layups and then your confidence grows," Messer said of Busby. "That's how high school kids are. When you play confident, a lot of good things happen."