Big comeback lifts Buffalo Grove over Hersey

The door was slowly closing on Buffalo Grove in its Thursday night Mid-Suburban East boys basketball game with visiting Hersey.

The Bison were looking at a 10-point deficit with 5:40 remaining and staring at an 0-2 start in the MSL East.

But Buffalo Grove (5-2, 1-1) adverted disaster by using a 17-5 closing run in a thrilling come-from-behind 64-62 victory.

"You don't want to be down 0-2 in this conference," said BG coach Ryan O'Connor, "If you want to keep your foot in the door we needed this one."

And BG did that by showing an urgency that was lacking in the middle two quarters on defense, going 13-for-18 at the free-throw line in the final quarter, and taking advantage of Hersey's miscues.

"That's what our team is about," said senior Kevin Mulligan who scored 8 of his 14 points in the final quarter by going 6-for-8 from the free throw line. "We just have to keep playing like that for four quarters."

Sharp shooter Nick Prus kept the Bison in the game by scoring a game-high 24 points and admitted Thursday's game was almost a must-win.

"It is," said Prus of the Bison narrow escape. "It's a tough conference and every team is formidable. Being 1-1 is important, we just have to keep playing hard."

Hersey (3-4, 1-1) entered the final quarter with a 7-point advantage thank in a large part to junior Tom Sutrinaitis (21 points, 7 rebounds) and senior Jordan Mertes (11 points).

But Mertes fouled out with 4:05 left and drew a technical foul. Prus went 1-for-2 on the technical foul shots and Mike Cornely added a putback to narrow the Bison deficit to 57-55 with less than four minutes remaining.

Sutrinaitis followed Mertes to the bench with his fifth foul with 2:49 remaining.

Prus then knotted the score at 57-57 on 2 free throws and Cornely found John Angotti (10 points) underneath for the go-ahead basket with 2:10 remaining.

BG extended its lead to 61-57, but a 3-pointer by Kyle Miklasz (13 points) narrowed the deficit with 51 seconds left.

BG then went 3-for-6 from the free throw line in the final minute and Hersey missed 2 free throws with 6.6 seconds remaining.

Hersey used its transition game to come back from a 7-point first-quarter deficit to take control in the middle two quarters but its attack sputtered down the stretch.

"You could see it, you could feel it, but we couldn't stop it," said Hersey coach Steve Messer of BG's game-winning run. "We were in a battle and I think we blinked."