Buffalo Grove holds off charging Meadows
After Buffalo Grove completed a 63-58 Mid-Suburban East boys basketball victory over Rolling Meadows on Friday, the first words out of Bison coach Keith Peterson's mouth were "I'm relieved."
And who could blame him?
His young Bison grew up a bit by withstanding a furious fourth-quarter rally by the visiting Mustangs that undoubtedly caused their coach a few stressful moments.
BG opened the game with a scoring explosion that gave it a 20-6 lead after the first eight minutes and then the Bison (6-8, 2-2) protected that lead over the next 16 minutes.
Meadows began to whittle away at BG's 54-42 lead after Bison sophomore Mac Camardo scored 2 of his game-high 20 points with 5:18 remaining in the game.
The Mustangs' Jared Murphy came alive in the fourth quarter, scoring 9 of his team-best 18 points, including 4 free throws in a row that cut the lead to 60-58 with 35.5 seconds remaining.
Colin Calcagno (16 points) made a pair of free throws with 17.7 seconds left, and after a Meadows turnover, he made 1-of-2 with 7.9 seconds left to ice the game.
"We had to get defensive stops," Peterson said. "In the first quarter, we did everything we worked on all week. Our defensive energy in the first quarter was great."
"All week we worked on feeding the high post and then we were able to find Mac down low," said junior point guard Collin Dekorsi, a two-year starter who scored 6 points.
"Usually, I like to stay down low, and my teammates look for me," said Camardo, whose 20 points and 10 rebounds were career highs.
The Bison were on fire offensively, making 8-of-11 from the field, including two 3-pointers and converted a pair of 3-point plays.
Meadows began chipping away and narrowed the margin to 29-21 at halftime. The Mustangs trailed 48-38 after three quarters.
Calcagno lit it up for BG, scoring 9 points in the third quarter, including 2-of-4 from behind the 3-point line. Murphy scored 5 points for Meadows.
The 14-point early deficit was simply too much to overcome for the Mustangs, who turned their season around with impressive wins in the Jack Tosh Tournament at York in December.
"The kids did a great job of fighting back," Meadows coach Kevin Katovich said. "Give BG credit; they came out strong. I thought we did a nice job offensively sharing the ball. I thought Hank Holm gave us a spark off the bench and John Lothery did a nice job all night."
Jack Schoessling scored 12 points for the Mustangs (3-11, 1-3), Matt Wojcik added 10, and Lothery 8, including a pair of 3-pointers.