Buffalo Grove comes on strong to knock off Elgin
It took a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the half to lift Buffalo Grove from its sluggish start.
But once Kevin Mulligan banked that shot home, the Bison tacked on the first 15 points of the third quarter and turned a close game into a rout in a 62-42 season-opening win over Elgin on the first night of the Bison Classic Thanksgiving tournament.
"Any time that happens, it gives you a lift," said BG coach Ryan O'Connor.
It must have gotten BG back in focus, too. After shooting just 10 of 32 in the first half, the Bison put down 15 of 26 in the second half. While they were scoring the first 15 points of the third quarter, Elgin was missing its first 8 shots from the floor and first 2 from the line as BG pulled away to a 53-36 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
But it wasn't just the shooting that stepped up for BG. The Bison, who thrive off their defense, did just that during their spurt. They got high-percentage shots on fastbreaks and off turnovers from Dan Recht, Jon Angotti three times, and Mulligan. Jeff Zabrin finally knocked down a 3-point look and fed Angotti for a hoop while Mulligan had a nice assist to Mike Cornely (10 points).
Sophomore Sam Wacker, 6-feet-5, added 6 points on some nice-touch shooting, and 6-4 junior Kevin Tennenbaum scrapped his way to 5 points. Nick Prus led BG with 14, including a dozen in the first half when he was virtually all the offense the Bison could muster.
But it was just a 1-point game until Mulligan tossed home his midcourt bomb to close the first half. While that got everyone excited, the veteran knows that's not the focal point.
"It starts with defense," said the 5-11 senior, whose team also dominated on the boards, 41-22. And he doesn't have to be the one to do the scoring either.
"I have a lot of options," he noted. Like Cornely, Tennenbaum and Wacker inside and Zabrin, Angotti and Prus on the perimeter.
Elgin has a lot of options too, but most of them are sophomores, including 6-2 Kory Brown, a jumping jack with all the moves. He led all scorers with 16, but had no field goals in the second half.
"Not a lot of teams can match up with a post guy like that," Elgin coach Mike Sitter said of his sprouting super soph. But while he was shooting .500 from the floor, hardly anyone else could find the basket, as BG smartly surrendered the outside look to the Maroons and kept them from getting to the hoop in the second half. No one else was in double-figures for Elgin. Brandon Baymon added 7 off the bench.
"We didn't shoot well," said Sitter. "In the second half, we didn't knock down the open shots." And they had to abandon an effective zone defense once they fell behind. But with three sophomores up, Sitter sees better days ahead as they mature.
BG sees better days ahead, like the rest of this week, hopefully.
"Hopefully we can play a whole game," said Mulligan.
With six juniors getting considerable playing time, O'Connor sees things jelling too. "Our young kids have roles, regardless of age. We can compete with a lot of teams," he said.
Like Holy Trinity on Wednesday, UC Woodlawn on Friday and the traditional tourney closer against geographic rival Stevenson on Saturday.