Intense Stevenson effort too much for BG

It’s not March, but Stevenson guard Mike Fleming had his intensity in postseason form on Saturday night.

Defensively, the Patriots looked tournament-ready at times, too.

In the final game of the Buffalo Grove Thanksgiving tournament, Fleming pumped his fists and let out a primal scream or two when he hit a couple of his biggest shots against the host Bison.

“This is the game I want to do that for,” Fleming said. “Buffalo Grove is a rival, on the other side of town. I was fired up. This is a big game for us.

“They also beat us in this tournament last year. I knew I had to step up for my team in this game.”

Spearheaded by Fleming’s game-high 24 points on the offensive end, the Patriots made their biggest statement on the defensive end en route to a 68-53 victory over Buffalo Grove.

Stevenson clamped down on the Bison from the opening tip, and made scoring a chore, especially in the first half.

The Patriots allowed just 2 first-quarter points, on 2 free throws. Buffalo Grove, which missed all 7 of its first-quarter shots, managed to reach just 10 points by halftime.

The Bison shot just 18 percent from the field in the first half and managed to raise that to only 31 percent for the game.

“It definitely started with our defense and that translated on the offensive end, too,” said Fleming, who drained 4 three-pointers. “Us making them take bad shots early in the game, and just that defensive intensity really helped us.”

Stevenson earned second place in the tournament with a 3-1 record. At 4-0, Elgin won the championship for the second year in a row.

“We were able to kind of lock in and take away their shooters and wear out some of their guys a little bit,” Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose said. “We keyed in on their strengths and were really effective.”

The Patriots also effectively moved the ball in their halfcourt offense to get open looks at the basket. Eight players scored and a total of three players scored in double-figures.

Besides Fleming, Matt Morrissey finished with 13 points on 3 three-pointers while Colby Cashaw added 10 points.

“Our team is really balanced. We have a lot of different threats offensively,” Fleming said. “And we have a really deep bench this year. That helps us out.”

The Stevenson reserves got quite a bit of playing time in the second half and were able to maintain a comfy cushion, but Buffalo Grove didn’t make that easy to do.

The Bison fell behind by as many as 30 points in the fourth quarter but were able to cut that down to 15 in the final minute thanks to a nagging fullcourt press, and the relentless efforts of Rich Zirngibl and Kevin Newman.

Zirngibl finished with 20 points while Newman added 12 points.

“I was happy that we were able to leave the game with a decent feeling that we gave it a good effort,’ Buffalo Grove coach Ryan O’Connor said. “We played hard. It was good for us to finish on that note after a long three quarters leading up to that.”