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Fontanetta's game-winner lifts Buffalo Grove over Barrington

Listed at 5-foot-3 in the program, Buffalo Grove junior Meghan Fontanetta was the smallest girl on the floor Thursday night.

At the end, she had the biggest shot of all.

With the score tied at 37 and 3.3 seconds left, Barrington had the ball out of bounds under the BG basket.

Bison junior Kendra Lee swiped away the inbounds pass and it tipped off the hands of teammate Sydney Fortman right into the hands of Fontanetta.

The all-area second baseman for the softball team calmly put up the layup just before the buzzer sounded and BG had a dramatic 39-37 win in the first game of its own Bison Classic girls basketball tourney.

"I was very surprised," Fontanetta said. "I was on help line and then I dropped low to get the ball. This was more than I expected. It's a great start for the team and myself."

Fontanetta's first game-winner of any level of her career gave BG (1-0) its first lead of the game.

"Our team really pushed through," said Fontanetta, whose sister Katie also had a memorable moment at BG a few years ago with a hole-in-one on the golf course. "We've been through a lot in the offseason. We put in lot of work and it all showed off in this game."

"To Meghan's credit, that girl shows up every day to practice and she works and works," said BG coach Steve Kolodziej. "And she's a smart kid. It's only the beginning for her and I think it's only the beginning for us."

The beginning of the game belonged to Barrington (0-1) as the Fillies jumped ahead 7-2 with 4 points from Shanna Turczynski (team-high 12 points) and a 3-pointer from Tori Meyer (5 points), who unfortunately had to leave the game early in the fourth quarter with an apparent knee injury.

"We learned a lot," said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. "We have a lot of things to work on. We played a lot of the game with three freshman and a sophomore. We had some foul trouble in the first half where we had Tori and Taylor Thompson (9 points) on the bench."

Fontanetta came off the bench and ended up with 7 points. In addition to her game-winner, she also hit a big 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter which got the Bison to within 31-27.

A 3-pointer by Lee (game-high 18 points) got BG to within 33-32 with 4:07 left and hosts finally tied it at 37-37 on 2 free throws by Lee with 24.5 seconds left.

After turnovers by both teams, it came down to those final 3.3 seconds with Fontanetta's unforgettable layup.

"Just like we drew it up right," Kolodziej said with a laugh. "These girls have worked so hard and people don't even realize it. Five days a week these girls are in a zero-hour class, before everyone else. They're lifting, doing speed agility drills and just committed to getting physically fit, stronger and mentally fit.

"And that's exactly what they needed tonight. We certainly didn't have our best game offensively. We turned the ball over a ton but we forced a ton of turnovers, too."

Also reaching the scoring column for BG were Macy Floro (9 points) and Alyssa Ramos (5) while guard Jackie Bickhaus helped move the ball up and down the floor for the winners.

  Barrington's Laura Mahlum looks to pass off as pressure from Buffalo Grove's Macy Floro and Jackie Bickhaus proves too much for her to handle in the first quarter of play in the Bison Classic girls varsity Thanksgiving Tournament at Buffalo Grove. Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
  Barrington's Taylor Thompson eyes the basket and scores despite defense from Alyssa Ramos in the first half of play in the Bison Classic girls varsity Thanksgiving Tournament at Buffalo Grove. Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
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