Wrap: Mulligan lifts BG; Hawks pull away

"It was typical Mid-Suburban League basketball out there tonight," as Buffalo Grove coach Ryan O'Connor accurately summed up Tuesday's game with visiting Barrington.

A clash of offensive and defensive strengths would ultimately result in BG squeezing past the Broncos 50-49 on Kevin Mulligan's free throw with five seconds to play.

The first quarter belonged to the Bison as senior Brian DeSimone and freshman Nick Prus rattled off back-to-back 3's to give BG (12-3) to take a 16-13 lead.

The second quarter would be controlled mainly on defense. Barrington (6-11) began using its size more efficiently as it would come away with 3 blocks and 6 steals before the half and trailed 23-21.

BG's struggles continued in the third quarter and allowed the Broncos to catapult themselves into the lead. Senior Billy Parry scored all 6 of his points on the night in the third to support Barrington.

The Broncos leading scorer was 6-foot-7 junior Mack Darrow who finished with 11 points. Darrow also added a slew of blocks on defense for Barrington.

Getting back to its earlier form, BG showed why it is one of the best when it comes to closing out games. Trailing 46-45 with 2:30 left, senior Mike Ricciardi hit a pair of free throws for the lead.

Soon after, Barrington junior Peter Leonard would power his way in for a bucket to tie the game yet again with a minute to play.

In the closing seconds Mulligan would draw a foul and go to the line. The BG sophomore made his first free throw and that would be all they would need for the win.

Mulligan finished with a game-high 13 points, 7 of which came in the second half.

"I wasn't nervous," said Mulligan. "I just wanted to be confident and just thought about how I make free throws in practice."

Hoffman 45, Elk Grove 31: Coach Bill Wandro is looking for the magic switch -- the one the head coach can flick at a game's beginning that will have Hoffman Estates play as well in the first quarter as it has in the last three quarters of most of its games so far this season.

Overall, though, he was pleased as his Hawks (10-4) resumed play after the holiday break with Tuesday night's 45-31 MSL crossover win at Elk Grove.

But trailing by a lethargic 6-4 after one quarter and not taking the lead until after a Casey Terry jumper midway through the second quarter, Wandro was scratching his head waiting for his team to awaken.

"The layups weren't falling," said Hoffman high scorer Luke Mead (20 points), who produced 10 third-quarter points, including a pair of 3s as Hoffman held Elk Grove (2-14) without a field goal for nearly six minutes from the second quarter until midway into the third.

"We executed well in the second half," the junior guard continued.

Did they ever. The Hawks hit 8-of-11 from the floor in the third quarter, limiting Elk Grove to 1-of-9 shooting, doubling them up on the boards and benefiting from high-percentage looks, many off of high-post feeds from center Kevin Lessner.

"He's a good post passer," Mead said after the 6-foot-4 senior fed him and forwards Tom Dombrowski and Ben Collins for easy layups. Each was a dagger for an Elk Grove team that worked hard to maintain the lead most of the first half and stay within 19-16 at halftime.

"Against a methodical, crisp, well-coached Hoffman Estates team, they got a 10-point lead and it seemed like 20," said Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman.

Elk Grove's Billy Hubly refused to quit. He had a team-high 16 points, hit four 3-pointers and forced Hoffman to use three different defenders on him.

"He hit a couple of nice shots there in the first half," said Wandro. "I liked the tempo of the game. Our turnovers were low. Defensively, we did what we wanted to do."

Now, as he acknowledged, his team has to switch gears to be ready for a tall Palatine team in an MSL West game Saturday night. "We know we'll be up against it," Wandro said.

Elk Grove already is.

"We talked at halftime about the adjustments we wanted to make," said Furman. "We need to learn how to do it.

"This team is going to grow."

-- Howard Schlossberg

Fenton 58, Maine West 52: Maine West (4-12) took a 4-point lead into the fourth quarter but was outscored 19-9 in the final eight minutes of the nonconference loss in Bensenville.

Jimmy Orlowski had 24 points and five 3-pointers and Adis Kadiric had 17 points and three 3s for the Warriors, who travel to Glenbrook North on Friday.