Buffalo Grove's 'D' fuels streak

Residing near the bottom of the area's defensive rankings is an uncustomary position for Buffalo Grove.

The Bison are doing something about it at the perfect time. They continued their improved defensive emphasis Friday night in a 58-54 Mid-Suburban East boys basketball win at Elk Grove.

"We take a little bit of pride in our defense and I think we lost our focus on that," said BG coach Ryan O'Connor after his team committed only 11 turnovers and scored 22 points off 19 Elk Grove miscues.

"Our defense was struggling for awhile and that's really what we take pride in," said BG senior Kevin Mulligan, who displayed it with plenty of floor burns to go with a game-high 21 points. "Defense is all hustle and hard work and we're working hard and hustling and our defense is getting better."

BG (15-9, 6-3) has allowed only 50 points a game in its four-game winning streak. It gave up an average of 52.9 points in an 8-2 start but that ballooned to 60.5 a game in a 3-7 stretch.

The hardworking Mulligan's effort seemed to filter to everyone from BG - particularly junior Brian Akialas limiting Elk Grove senior Donny Duschinsky to 7 points of his 13.3 average on 3-for-10 shooting.

"Every guy on the team is playing pretty hard right now," Mulligan said.

"That's definitely a positive sign," O'Connor said. "Our effort has been great the past couple of weeks.

"We certainly went through a period as a team where we were flat."

Elk Grove (9-15, 4-5) was coming in on a four-game roll that was its longest in five years. BG used a 15-point run to go ahead to stay at 20-10.

Mulligan started it with a 3-point play and Nick Prus then scored 12 of his 14 points. The last 10 came in a span of just 1:04 with three 3-pointers.

"They're playing with that confidence we're playing with right now," said Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman.

Elk Grove responded and got within 24-23 on 4 straight points 1:56 before halftime by Brian Battaglia.

The senior guard finished with 18 points on 6-for-10 shooting despite arriving a couple of minutes after the game started when he got sick in the afternoon and went to the hospital to get checked out.

"My adrenaline took over," Battaglia said.

Then BG's defense took over with 3 straight turnovers as a Jeff Zabrin steal led to a Prus layup and Mulligan was rewarded for his hustle for a loose ball with a 3-point play.

"We didn't have any answer for Mulligan for the better part (of the game)," Furman said. "He led their team. He scored, he defended and he distributed the ball."

BG opened a 43-29 lead as Mike Cornely scored 6 of his 13 points and Elk Grove was 2-for-13 from the field with 4 turnovers in the first 7:05 of the second half.

Cornely (5 rebounds), Prus (7 rebounds) and Dan Recht (6 rebounds) helped BG finish even on the boards at 28-28.

Elk Grove got within 49-44 at 3:29 on a 3 by Keven Zelaya (10 points) and 57-53 on a 3 by John Lorenz at 0:33 but couldn't take advantage of a turnover to get closer.

"We're pretty close to it if not better," Mulligan said of BG playing the way it did early in the season. "There's still room to improve but we have a couple more weeks until the (state) tournament."

BG hopes it's a sign of even better times ahead.