Mother McAuley knocks off Buffalo Grove
Mother McAuley's girls basketball team put in a lot of mileage with five trips from its campus on the south side of Chicago to Buffalo Grove High School for the Bison Classic.
But the Mighty Macs (5-0) showed they had plenty left in the tank on the basketball floor, too.
The 2018 Class 4A sectional champs wheeled to their fifth and final win on Saturday, defeating the host school 52-38 in the game that settled the title.
"We've been coming here a few years now," said Mother McAuley coach Ashley Clanton, whose top five players all saw significant action for last year's Elite Eight qualifier. "It's always good competition and they do a good job running the tournament (headed by girls AD Matt Myers) so we enjoy it."
The Mighty Macs' fans enjoyed their team racing out to a 9-2 advantage less than four minutes into the contest.
"These girls enjoy playing, so once they hit the floor they'll get after you," Clanton said. "They did a nice job getting out of the gate."
A driving bank shot by junior Macy Floro got the Bison (3-2) to within 11-6 but that's as close as they would get.
McAuley closed out the first quarter with a 5-1 run to lead 16-7.
Floro finished with 7 points and was selected to the all tourney team along with classmate Kendra Lee (6 points).
"I can't speak highly enough about Macy and the type of player she is," said BG coach Steve Kolodziej. "And how disruptive she is. She is certainly deserving of the all-tourney team and so is Kendra Lee. Kendra is an outstanding player."
Clanton saw good things in the Bison.
"They turned the corner well on us," she said. "They got to the middle of the paint more than we would have liked because they've got pretty tough kids. And they never give up. They played four strong quarters.
Trailing by as many as 28 points, the Bison closed the game on a 16-2 run.
More than half of those 16 points came on three 3-pointers by senior Heide Schmit (team-high 9 points).
"Heide is a shooter," Kolodziej said. "It was great to see her finally start hitting them. She was struggling the first four games from the perimeter so it was good for her to knock some down."
Jackie Bickhaus, Sydney Fortman, Jackie Lavigne, Hannah Young, Megan Fontanetta and Zori Angelova also added field goals or free throws for BG.
"I'm pretty happy finishing 3-2 in the tournament," Kolodziej said. "I told the girls before the season started that we'd find out where we're at after these two weeks and I think we've got a pretty good idea. I like where we're at. We're going to keep getting better and get ready for the grind."