Fast start propels Buffalo Grove past Elk Grove
As Buffalo Grove boys basketball coach Keith Peterson took his team on the 20-minute drive down Arlington Heights Road to face Elk Grove Thursday night, he sought to turnaround the Bison's recent slide, which had seen them drop five of their last six games.
Upon arrival, his Grenadier counterpart Nick Oraham was fully empathetic. His club had lost five straight since winning its first two games at the Maine East holiday tournament three weeks ago.
Thanks to their ability to get off to a fast start, the Bison were able to regain their footing as they earned a 71-53 victory at Charles Aldrich Gymnasium to pull even at 3-3 in Mid- Suburban East play and 10-12 overall.
Central to procuring that win was a blazing pace that left the home team behind as BG led by an 18-4 count after senior Adidas Davis (game-high 17 points) hit a 3-pointer with 2:51 left in the first quarter.
The Grenadiers (4-14, 0-5) never came any closer than 10 the rest of the contest.
"We came out on a hot start, we had a good warmup (and) we had a lot of energy in the locker room," Davis said. "We just came ready to play. We've had a long few weeks and we just wanted to get ourselves back on (track)."
In addition to Davis' early success, his senior teammate Jacob Heinrich (16 points) went on vacuum mode, scooping up 5 of his team-high 8 rebounds, 3 of which set up first-quarter Bison baskets.
"Everybody on the team was being aggressive and when Adidas was shooting great, Aidan (Romanski, 9 points) was shooting, everybody was shooting great. It opens up us to go inside," Heinrich said.
BG led 33-16 at half, and 53-32 after three.
Junior guard Bronson Bartuch's 13 points paced the Grens.
Oraham also cited the start of the night as the deciding factor in the game's outcome.
"Usually the kids compete pretty hard, but we just weren't ready to play tonight," Oraham said. "We got outworked on the glass (21-18). We got outcompeted (on) virtually every possession. They punched us in the mouth early and having to call two timeouts in the first 4-5 minutes of the game aren't signs of a team ready to compete."
Buffalo Grove gets a weekend off before hosting division front-runner Rolling Meadows next Thursday.