Buffalo Grove shocks Mother McAuley
Buffalo Grove's girls basketball team had been waiting all season to click like this.
Fortunately for the Bison, it finally came in the opening round of the 29th Annual Charger Classic at Dundee-Crown Monday.
Kim Herzog and Bailey North scored 18 points each, senior point guard Emily Cho added 14 and junior Amanda Salzman had 14 as BG upset Mother McAuley 74-60.
The Bison (2-9) will take on top-seeded, top-ranked and undefeated Bartlett in today's 8 p.m. semifinal. Bartlett defeated Dundee-Crown 58-36 in the final opening round game Monday night.
"Teamwork," smiled a happy Cho. "No one expects us to do as well as we did today."
The Bison led 8-6 after one quarter but then opened things up with a 14-7 spurt to start the second quarter. By halftime BG led 27-19, an advantage it extended to 42-25 midway through the third quarter after Morgan Angotti scored on a putback.
BG's biggest lead in the game was 18 midway through the fourth quarter. McAuley (7-6) closed to within 10 late in the third quarter but Cho and Angotti scored to close out the period and the Mighty Macs never got closer than 10 the rest of the way.
The Bison shot a sizzling 20 of 32 from the field and canned 27 of 32 from the free-throw line, a fact not lost on their coach, Pat Dudle.
"It always helps when you make shots like we did today," Dudle said. "We played very well today."
The Bison sealed the win from the free-throw line. BG made 21 of 23 in the fourth quarter, with Salzman knocking down 10 of 10 and Cho 10 of 12.
"We just had to keep playing hard," said Cho, who added 5 assists. "We had nothing to lose, so why not just play as hard as you can?"
North added 8 rebounds for the Bison, which won the battle of the glass 28-18.
Alyssa Siwek had 11 points and Haley Harris added 10 for Mother McAuley, which will play a 2 p.m. consolation round game today against Dundee-Crown.
Evanston 41, Naperville Central 20: For the rest of the 29th annual Charger Classic Christmas Tournament at Dundee-Crown, Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum is more concerned about something else other than winning.
"I don't care if we even win, we just need to play better," Nussbaum said after his team fell 41-20 to Evanston in Monday's first round. "We are certainly not getting out of ourselves what we need to get."
The Redhawks (6-6) get Regina Dominican in the consolation quarterfinals at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Evanston (7-6) got a berth in the winner's bracket quarterfinals (5 p.m.) against New Trier (10-2), which topped Regina 53-27.