Girls basketball: Rolling Meadows rallies from 10 down to top Buffalo Grove
Rolling Meadows' girls basketball team celebrated Teacher Appreciation Night at its home opener Tuesday.
Senior Abby Ramel gave tribute to her chemistry teacher Neil Mott.
Then the Mustangs (5-0) went on and showed some solid chemistry of their own in the second half, recovering from a 10-point deficit, to register a 49-40 victory over Buffalo Grove in the Mid-Suburban League crossover contest.
Ramel led the hosts with a game-high 22 points followed by Eastern Illinois pledge Dalia Grandberry (9 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocked shots) and junior Nell Osterhues (8).
Trailing 23-15 at intermission, the Mustangs outscored BG 34-17 in the second half.
"We had a really strong talk at half and it kind of brought up everyone's energy," Ramel said. "We were a little down because we wanted to be winning (at half) so I think that's what made us come out strong in the second half."
Meadows outscored BG 18-7 in the third quarter and took the lead for good when Ramel deflected the ball near half court to Anna Andriano, who went all the way to the basket for a layup and a 29-28 lead.
Ramel's driving layup off a steal by Lizzy Andriano gave RM a 33-28 lead with 1:41 left in the third quarter before BG cut it to 33-31 leading in the fourth on a 16-footer and a free throw by Weber.
The Mustangs kept the pressure on in the fourth quarter and took a 42-33 lead with 2:34 left when Iris Jordan (4 rebounds, 2 steals) hit a 3-pointer from the corner.
BG got within 44-40 on a 3-pointer by Litsa Karavitis (6 points) with 1:06 left but RM scored the game's final 5 points, getting 2 free throws from senior Lizzy Andriano (6 steals, 3 assists), one from Anna Andriano and Ramel's driving bank shot with five seconds left.
"We obviously didn't play very good basketball in the first half and credit that to Buffalo Grove," said RM coach Ryan Kirkorsky. "They just took it to us in the first half and we just told the kids not to panic.
"We thought we had pretty good shots in the first half but we just weren't playing hard enough and I really credit Anna Andriano (sophomore guard who had 7 rebounds). I thought she played winning basketball for us the whole game. We needed everyone to raise their level to hers and I think we did in the second half."
Trailing 9-8, BG finished the first quarter on a 7-0 run, getting a driving layup from sophomore Kayla Daiguird (10 points), a 3-pointer from Daiguird and a baseline 17-footer with three seconds left from junior Amanda Kowalski 6 points) to lead 15-9.
Kowalski came right back with a 3-pointer early in the second quarter to extend the lead to 18-11, starting another 7-0 run that included a free throw from sophomore Olivia Hill and a 3-pointer from sophomore Hannah Weber (10 points) for a 22-13 lead with 4:08 left until intermission.
A free throw by sophomore Litsa Karavitis (6 points) made it 23-13 before Ramel 's driving bank shot with 58 seconds got the Mustangs to within 23-15 at half.
"We told the girls we are better than this," said BG coach Martha Kelly, whose team is 2-3. "We lost the game by allowing too many rebounds and too many turnovers. We had the opportunities and we just let it go.
"We're young so it's a great learning opportunity. We've got a lot of growth ahead of us. I think teams should be scared to see our name on the schedule because we're just going to get better as the season goes on."