Bison boys, girls prevail

Some basketball teams talk a good game about turning defense into offense and coming out strong to start a second half.

Buffalo Grove showed the way it's done to turn a game that could have gone either way at halftime into a runaway Friday night at Rolling Meadows.

The defending Mid-Suburban East boys champions parlayed 7 miscues into 18 unanswered points the first 3:33 after intermission and cruised to a 61-48 victory.

"We try to come out of halftime pretty fired up," said BG sophomore guard Kevin Mulligan, who drew the tough assignment of guarding MSL scoring leader Kyle Gaedele.

"It was perfect -- just what we needed," said BG senior Brian DeSimone after providing a second-quarter spark with 11 of his game-high 17 points. "We talked about coming out strong in the second half."

And the Bison (9-1, 4-0) wasted no time going to work on it to stampede away from a 26-23 halftime lead.

The only points in the run not off a turnover came on the first possession when Mulligan found senior Mike Ricciardi (11 points, 10 rebounds) inside for a 3-point play.

Then came the flurry of turnovers that led to a blizzard of points.

"If we play good defense we play good offense," Mulligan said, "not the other way around."

Federico Iudica had steals lead to two 3-pointers as he scored 8 of his 12 points in the third. Mulligan fed DeSimone for a layup and DeSimone got 1 of his 5 assists to Paul Timko for a 3-point play.

A long jumper and baseline drive by Mulligan finished the 18-point run and Meadows (5-4, 2-2) was all but done with a 44-23 deficit.

"Everything was rolling," DeSimone said of the Bison missing only 1 of their first 8 second-half shots.

"Our defensive energy that third quarter was outstanding," said BG coach Ryan O'Connor. "Defense was really where it was at that third quarter for us."

One the Meadows starters spent the last six minutes of viewing from the bench.

"We came out and didn't execute, didn't have any energy and didn't have any intensity," said Meadows coach Kevin Katovich. "Against a good team like BG, if you aren't ready to go all the time, it will be problematic."

James Hurley added 8 points for BG, which shot 51.1 percent (23-for-45) from the field to 33 percent (17-for-51) for Meadows.

Gaedele came in averaging 19.4 points a game but got 8 of his team-high 10 in the fourth quarter. O'Connor put DeSimone on Ty Kirk, who had 9 on 3-for-12 shooting.

"He's a strong, gutsy kid who I know doesn't mind sticking his nose in there to keep Gaedele off the block," O'Connor said of Mulligan.

"It was fun," Mulligan said. "He's a good player."

Defense is making winning a lot of fun for BG.

Girls

BG 67, Meadows 33: Coming into Friday night's contest against Rolling Meadows, the BG girls basketball team was hoping there would be few surprises.

After all, coming into the game with an undefeated record, BG was hoping to take care of business and pick up another MSL East victory before next week's Dundee-Crown Charger Classic.

While the Bison effectively wore down the Mustangs(3-10, 0-4) with swarming defense en route to a 67-33 victory, the surprise Friday night was that BG(13-0, 4-0) may be even more talented than most think.

While senior captains Maggie and Allison Mocchi, as well as Ellen Ayoub effectively controlled much of the game for BG, the bench demonstrated that the Bison are far more than a senior-powered team.

Freshmen KC Dunne (12 points) and Kelly Mahoney (6) each contributed to the Bison effort off the bench, keeping pace with teammates and opposing players two or three years their senior.

"In the past we've always been five or six deep, but that's not the case this year," BG coach Tom Dineen said. "I thought Kelly Mahoney gave us a lot of good things off the bench. And KC is instant offense for us as well."

After going on a 20-0 run in the first quarter to take a 22-point lead, Dineen was able to rest his starters and let his bench display their talent.

"It's really exciting to play with older people," said Mahoney. "We've been taking it one game at a time."

For Dunne, who connected successfully on four 3-point baskets, this past summer's hard work is starting to pay off.

"(My shooting) has come from this summer practicing hard and working on my form," Dunne said.

While the performance of the freshman displayed the Bison's depth, Maggie Mocchi led the way with a game-high 19 points, 7 rebounds and 7 steals.

"I've played with most of these girls for four years already," Mocchi said. "We have a lot of team chemistry on and off the court and it really helps us."

"We just go out there and play our game and don't think about who we are playing and what the score is."

Dineen is hoping his team is ready for next week's tournament challenge.

"We've had four tough tests so far this season and we've passed all four," Dineen said. "For six of our girls (the Dundee-Crown Tournament) is their last chance to come away with a championship there. We'd like to make that happen."

For Rolling Meadows, despite 25 turnovers and a tough day all-around, coach Patrick O'Connell was happy with his girls' effort, specifically in terms of rebounding.

"I was very pleased with how we battled on the boards," O'Connell said. "(BG) are good shooters and when they miss we didn't give them a lot of second chances, so I was very happy with that."

-- Dan Hyman