BG holds off Wheeling in wild one
Buffalo Grove and Wheeling learned the same lesson Friday in their Mid-Suburban East boys basketball game on Senior Night: No lead is safe in the MSL.
The host Bison raced out to a 26-8 lead after one quarter, and everyone involved could have been excused for thinking a Wheeling comeback wasn't in the cards.
Not only did the Wildcats (7-13, 2-6) make a game of it, they led 67-64 with just 1:07 left in the game. That's when the pendulum swung back in BG's favor. The Bison scored 8 unanswered points in the final 54.3 seconds and emerged 72-67 winners.
James Hurley scored 11 of his team-high 18 points in the first quarter, as the Bison (14-8, 5-3) could do no wrong, while the visitors were hard-pressed to find anything that worked. BG led 14-2 and scored 10 of the final 12 points of the quarter.
It looked like the rout was on.
"You kind of get that in the back of your mind," said Mike Cornely, who scored 17 points for the balanced Bison attack.
That thought was nowhere in Wheeling coach Lou Wool's mind. He switched from a man-to-man to a trapping zone, which the Wildcats used the rest of the way. A 13-2 run gave the Wildcats some confidence and momentum, and sophomore Preston Harvey's (11 points) bank shot from half-court at the halftime horn cut the deficit to 34-26.
"Any team in the East is physical and plays hard," said Kevin Mulligan (16 points). "We tried to keep that momentum, but their zone slowed us down."
Wheeling continued the comeback in the third quarter, finally tying the score at 40-40 on a 3-point play by Robert Carter (11 points) with 4:02 left. Michael Zimmer's basket with 3:10 remaining gave Wheeling its first lead of the game at 42-40.
The Wildcats took a 49-46 lead into the fourth quarter, when James Kurtz scored 11 of his team-best 18 points, including a pair of 3-point plays. Harvey's free throws with 1:07 left gave Wheeling its last lead at 67-64.
In succession, Cornely made a basket, and Mulligan scored a layup off a Wheeling turnover to put the Bison back on top 68-67. Dan Wichmann and Cornely both made a pair of free throws following missed scoring opportunities by Wheeling.
"The second quarter (8 points) was a struggle," said BG coach Ryan O'Connor. "It was a little ugly, but we were able to get the ball in the hole (in the second half). We scored more in the second half than the first."
"Tonight, we finally played Wheeling basketball," said Wildcats coach Lou Wool. "I'm proud of the effort and the way we fought back