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Eventually, Buffalo Grove pulls away from Christian Liberty

The scoreboard Friday night showed that Buffalo Grove's boys basketball team came away with a 40-point win over Christian Liberty Academy.

That score didn't at all reflect how competitive the game was early on.

Christian Liberty recovered from a quick 9-0 barrage by BG to take control and take a 17-16 lead after one quarter.

The Chargers had chances to extend the lead as well but poor free throw shooing - 2-for-11 in the first half - helped the Bison turn the game around.

BG went on a 19-0 run in the second quarter to regain command and ran away with an 81-41 victory at the Bison Thanksgiving Classic

tournament.

"We lost our energy and our excitement," said Buffalo Grove coach Keith Peterson of his team's first-quarter letdown. "I didn't say anything before the second quarter began. It was our seniors who took it upon themselves to make sure everyone regained their focus."

Buffalo Grove's Collin Dekorsi led a balanced scoring effort with 12 points, while sophomore guard Jesse Castro scored 12 for the Chargers.

"We played very well in the first quarter," said CLA coach Jed Bennett, "and I actually thought we played very well the entire game. We just didn't finish as well as we did in the first quarter.

"We missed a ton of free throws tonight, and that hurt because we're a much better free throw shooting team than we showed."

CLA, which sank only 10 of 25 foul shots for the game, was short four players against BG due to holiday commitments.

"That hurt us depth-wise," said Bennett, "but I liked the eight we played tonight. Everybody wound up playing more minutes than they're used too, but it is what it is."

Dekorsi had 2 steals and coast-to-coast layups in the initial two minutes as BG scored the first 9 points.

Then CLA roared back behind 8 first quarter points from junior Mark Cabrera, and when Castro hit a long 3, the Chargers grabbed the lead at the first-quarter buzzer.

The second stanza was all Bison as the home team scored 19 and their defense shut out CLA, which missed six second-quarter free throws.

The runaway continued as BG outscored CLA 22-9 in the third, and a 3 from Zack Fricke at the horn gave his team a 57-26 advantage.

Bison guard Demetri Lonick scored all 7 of his points in the fourth quarter to help account for the final score.

"Our guys finally figured out that they were playing a varisty basketball team," said Peterson, whose team owned a 35-11 advantage on the glass. "They (CLA) were playing well and hitting their shots."

Jack Vaselaney scored 10 points for BG, and 6-foot-6 forward Hans Haller made his presence felt with 8 points, 4 boards and 2 blocks. Jimmy Trieb had 6 points and led BG (2-1) with 9 rebounds.

"We usually play 13 guys," said Peterson, "and tonight we were able to play 17. We have a lot of guys who can play and a lot of guys who can score, and everyone stepped up tonight and did a nice job."

Cabrera finished with 10 points for CLA (0-4) while classmate Brendan Munez added 7.

"I took a ton of positives away from the game tonight," said Bennett. "We've just got to do a better job of finishing our shots and finishing on 'D.' "

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