Heavenly finish as Buffalo Grove takes Classic

The Buffalo Grove girls were in basketball's seventh heaven on Saturday afternoon.

For the first time in seven years, the Bison were champions of their own Bison Classic.

With 5-foot-11 junior Sammy Stejskal scoring a career-high 27 points plus 13 apiece from senior Julie Jambrone and junior Maddie Welter, Buffalo Grove ran past Hersey 66-49 in the championship game.

"There's no better feeling to start the season," said Jambrone, who is the only Bison to have played in the last four Classics. "This is awesome."

An 8-foot running bank shot by sophomore Claire Gritt followed by senior Annie Korff's layup off an assist from sophomore Kelly Weyhrich tied the game at 15-15 early in the second quarter.

After that, BG (5-0) began to take control.

Three-pointers by Welter and Jambrone helped ignite a 12-4 run in which four different Bison scored for a 27-19 lead.

Welter's 16-footer from behind the free throw stripe made it 30-23 at intermission.

A 3-point play Stejskal to start the second half boosted the lead to 10 and Hersey (4-1) never got closer than 6 points in the final two quarters.

"Last season we played in a lot of close games that we didn't close out," said Stejskal, who also collected 6 steals and 6 rebounds. "But this season we are coming out strong in the third and fourth quarters."

Stejskal was coming off her career-best of 18 points against Libertyville last Tuesday.

"I saw open gaps and just took them," Stejskal said about her big performance on Saturday.

But she also hit from the outside, converting a key 17-footer from the baseline that gave BG a 37-29 lead midway through the second quarter.

In addition to her 9 points, Bison senior Maddy Callahan also grabbed 5 rebounds with 4 assists while classmate Bri Kolbus collected 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 rebounds. Junior Natali Dimitrova grabbed 7 rebounds to lead the Bison.

"The biggest thing about this group is that they care about each other," said Bison coach Steve Kolodziej. "They are teammates with each other inside and outside of school."

"We are all like a family and on the same page working together," Jambrone added. "We put in a lot of time for this."

Hersey junior Maggie Berigan put in the game's first 5 points and finished with a team-high 19 points while Korff added 14.

"Maggie has really been a presence in the post for us," said Hersey coach Mary Fendley.

Berigan's 8-footer in the lane got Hersey to within 12-11 late in the first quarter before a 3-pointer by Jambrone made it 15-11.

"They (Buffalo Grove) are playing well right now and we are not clicking yet," Fendley said. "Hopefully, as the weeks go on, we will be a little more cohesive offensively and defensively. They did a nice job making back door cuts that we didn't defend well."

Buffalo Grove became only the third team to defeat Hersey in its last 35 games. The others were also Mid-Suburban League East rivals (Rolling Meadows and Prospect last season).

Korff and Juliette Vainisi were selected to the all-tourney team for Hersey while Stejskal, Kolbus and Welter were honorees for BG.

The Bison are off to their best start in Koldziej's three seasons in charge.

"Winning is a habit," said the former Schaumburg quarterback, whose team limited its turnovers to under double digits. "And we talk about winning every day in practice. We talk about winning in life, too, which is a lot harder to do than winning in basketball.

"I know I've said this a thousand times but when you have team goals over individual goals, that's when you are going to succeed. When you play that way and share the basketball, that's when you are successful."

The Bison hope to make a successful run in the MSL East this winter.

The combined record of MSL East teams currently stands at 23-7.

"We can't get complacent now," Koldziej said. "Our conference is absolutely loaded."