Buffalo Grove turns in winning direction
Buffalo Grove girls basketball coach Steve Kolodziej has been telling his players how close they are to success.
On Saturday, the Bison found success twice at the Lake Forest tournament in games that weren't all that close at the end.
The Bison defeated Lakes 66-27 and Deerfield 50-26 to raise their record to 4-16.
"We played great team defense today," Kolodziej said. "It was two games of team offense and a great step in the right direction."
The Bison jumped ahead 23-4 after one quarter against Lakes and never looked back as junior Heide Schmit connected for five 3-pointers and a game-high 15 points.
In all, the Bison had 12 3-pointers including two from Alyssa Floro (6 points).
Kendra Lee scored 9 points while Megan Fontanetta and Macy Flor had 7 apiece.
In the win over Deerfield, Lee scored a game-high 15 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Jackie Bickhaus also reached double figures with 10 points while Sydney Fortman chipped in 8.
"We've been grinding for weeks and I've been telling the girls we are so close, but yet so far," Kolodziej added. "I couldn't be happier with the team effort."
BG faces Palatine at 9 a.m. on Monday and Lake Forest at noon when the tourney wraps up.
"We look forward to Monday's challenge with Palatine and Lake Forest," Kolodziej said. "Those two teams should contend for regional championships and it's a great opportunity to see where we are at with four and half weeks left. We look forward to the challenge."
Palatine splits: Palatine (14-5) defeated Lakes 35-23 and fell to Lake Forest 36-20 at the Lake Forest tournament.
Sydney Rzepka led the Pirates with 16 points and Kacie Filian added 8 against Lakes. Kendra Lindell and Sarah Jasonowicz each had 3-pointers in the game. Rzepka also led Palatine with 7 points against Lake Forest while Jenny Myslinski and Jasonowicz each tossed home 3-pointers.
Fremd splits: Fremd (12-9) topped Rockford Luthern 45-31 at the DeKalb tournament and then dropped a 41-25 decision to state-ranked Rockford Boylan.
Ruthie Montella, Emily Klaczek and Olivia Hill each had 6 points against Rockford Lutheran. Hill had a pair of 3-pointers while Sophia Youman and Crystal Kim each had one.
In the loss to Boylan, Hill led the offense with 9 points, including a 3-pointer.
St. Charles East 39, Barrington 31: Host St. Charles East (10-9) was led by Alabama-Birmingham Sara Rosenfeldt, who scored 14 points.
"I thought she was a very complete player," said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. "She goes hard she offensively and defensively. She rebounds, passes well and does a nice job of making her teammates better."
Sophomore guard Shanna Turczynski led Barrington (7-12) with 11 points with a pair of 3-pointers while Tori Meyer added 8.
"I thought Shanna had a nice game," Barreiro added. "She had a couple of nice steals and was able to hit some nice buckets.
"I thought we played pretty well defensively but we had a hard time offensively. We never really got comfortable. That's because they did a nice job defensively. When we did get comfortable in the second half, we had a hard time finding the basket."