Rolling Meadows holds off Buffalo Grove
At Rolling Meadows right now, it’s all about intensity.
The intensity of a 5-game winning streak. The intensity of some streaky-hot shooting. The intensity of a stepped-up defensive effort. And most of all, the intensity that comes with confidence.
Ever since getting riddled by Schaumburg shortly after Christmas, Meadows has turned it around.
“Confidence,” said point guard Brian Nelms Friday night after scoring 15 in a 64-60 Mid-Suburban East win at Buffalo Grove. “We’re so well-rounded now.”
In other words, everyone’s contributing.
That includes the starting frontline of Paul Volkman (20 points), Scott Shewmon (10) and Tyler Gaedele (15, including a trio of 3-pointers). They also helped Meadows to a rebounding advantage and forced the Bison to play their “bigs,” Sam Wacker (17 points) and Kevin Tennenbaum, at the same time.
“That helped,” getting the production they did out of Volkman and Shewmon, said Meadows coach Kevin Katovich.
The Mustangs lead virtually all the way, withstood every BG charge and made huge plays when they needed them. Whether it was Nelms emphatically finishing a 3-point drive in the fourth quarter or just dribbling the clock out until he got fouled, or Gaedele hitting a triple in the first half and then a couple of clutch drives in the fourth quarter, Meadows had what it took.
And switching to a match-up zone they didn’t want to go to helped the Mustangs (10-9, 4-3) as well.
“We meant to play man all night,” said Katovich. But getting into a little foul trouble forced the switch. BG struggled from there as the quickness of Jeff Zabrin (15 points) and the mismatch at guard that 6-foot-4 Nick Prus (12 points) can cause helped offset those BG advantages.
But it was BG that never took advantage. When Meadows went cold, committed turnovers and had a couple of defensive lapses in the second half, BG couldn’t respond forcefully enough. And even though Alex Fritz, Rich Zirngibl and Wacker shot BG back into the game, including within 61-60 with 26.8 seconds left, Volkman’s hoop inside and Eric Lowe’s free throw closed it out.
It ended a magnificent comeback for BG but didn’t erase the mistakes that put them in a hole.
“Our kids did a good job of getting back in the game. I loved the physical effort,” said BG (12-8, 3-4) head coach Ryan O’Connor. “But it takes a little bit more to get it done.”
Foul trouble, shot selection against the zone and 10 second-half turnovers doomed the Bison, along with the match-up problems at the other end. BG shot just 24-of-62 from the floor, most of that poor shots versus the zone defense.
Katovich thinks it’s more the entire team effort.
“They’re all about the team,” he said of his kids. And when BG rallied, “We had to make sure we stepped up,” and they did. That included some huge minutes in relief of Lowe and Nelms from Mike Olson and James Nolan and Nelms’ uncanny ability to make the right decisions, whether taking it to the rim or finding the open man.
“He’s doing a great job finding me,” said Gaedele, the 6-2 junior with the sweet stroke.
Nelms just called it “unselfishness” running through the team during this winning streak. Katovich called it a “really nice job executing our game plan.
“We’re starting to come together.”