Buffalo Grove tops Meadows in OT
Talk about redeeming yourself.
With 2.2 seconds left, junior guard Emily Cho missed 2 free throws that would have given her Buffalo Grove girls basketball team the lead.
Instead the game went to overtime tied at 55-55.
But guess whose free throws were a major reason Buffalo Grove was smiling after the extra session?
Cho made 5-of-6 in the final 1:45 of overtime to lift the Bison to a dramatic 64-63 triumph over Rolling Meadows before a big crowd at Buffalo Grove for Breast Cancer Awareness Night and Senior Night.
“Holy Moly, what a game,” said Bison coach Pat Dudle, whose team (12-12, 6-2) won for the 11th time in 15 games to remain two games behind Hersey in the Mid-Suburban East. “I told Emily right before overtime that there’s no one else I’d rather have on the free throw line than her. Obviously, she came through.”
“My team really kept me up,” said Cho, who was 11-of-15 at the line with 15 points. “I just had to act like those were ordinary free throws I missed. I was upset but I just had to stay up. KC (Dunne, a teammate who had fouled out late in regulation) told me how important my intensity was to the team and that just really picked me up.”
Sophomore Bailey North helped pick up the Bison with her game-high 17 points while Emily Georgoulis had 11, including three huge 3-point baskets in the second half.
“Bailey stepped up her game,” Dudle said. “Andrea DiPrima (13 points) made some big passes. Her vision is getting better and better.”
All eyes were on the young Mustangs when they raced out to a 21-10 lead, sparked by a pair of 3-point baskets from freshman Alexis Glasgow (11 points) in the first quarter.
But BG fought back and used a 15-0 run to take a 25-21 lead. North’s bank shot made it 22-21 before Dunne (7 points) hit a 3-pointer.
Glasgow’s 2 free throws brought the Mustangs to within 28-26 at the break and second half was close all the way.
Freshman Jackie Kemph, who had another stellar performance with a game-high 22 points, gave Meadows (16-9, 4-4) a 55-53 lead on a driving bank shot with 2:37 remaining.
Taking an alert pass from Cho, North hit bank shot with 1:10 left to tie the game at 55.
In overtime, North hit 2 free throws to give BG the lead.
Kemph answered with a splendid drive to the basket but BG got ahead for good on Cho’s layup. Cho finished with 7 of BG’s 9 points in the overtime.
“After the game, I told her (Cho) to keep her head up,” said Mustangs coach Todd Hatfield. “I told her she made the ones (free throws) that counted.
“I felt we got off to a slow start in overtime. But BG played a great game.”
Sophomore forward Morgan Keller added 14 points for Meadows while freshman Jenny Vliet chipped in 11.
Cho’s clutch free throw with 22.5 seconds in OT left made it 64-60 before senior Maddie Conlin’s 3-pointer in the final seconds accounted for the 64-63 final.
“We still have as shot to set the single season record for wins and we haven’t had a game all season where we’ve had all five of our starters,” Hatfield said.
Ann Marie Lynch (broken arm) and Amanda Gunn (concussion) are currently sidelined while Hatfield only played senior Sara Shumaker about 10 minutes Friday as she recovers from illness earlier in the week.
“I’m really proud of this group,” Hatfield said. “I told the girls to just go out there and enjoy the game and they did. They did a great job.”
North, who was 1 point shy of her career high of 18 points, did not play when Meadows defeated BG 43-38 in the first meeting.
“This was a great win, a great team effort,” said the 6-foot sophomore forward. “Emily hit some huge free throw for us in overtime. It was Senior’s Night so we really wanted to get a win for them (Courtney Poders, DiPrima, Dunne, Georgoulis and Alanna Zawlocki). Meadows played a 2-3 zone last time and we weren’t ready for it. This time, we did better against it.”