Buffalo Grove gets past Round Lake
When Buffalo Grove's 1-2 scoring punch of Cam Kraft and Tom Trieb went down with injuries a few weeks ago senior guard Mike Nowakowski knew what he had to do.
"I do what I have to do to help our team win games," said Nowakowski.
"I knew I would have to step up my scoring in the games."
Nowakowski scored a career-high 23 points in the Bison's 83-72 win over Round Lake Monday night in the Class 4A Barrington regional.
The win pits the 10th-seeded Bison (18-10) against the host Broncos, who are seeded No. 7 Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.
Nate Cole, a budding 6-foot-4 junior, also scored a career-high with 27 points in the win against the 23rd-seeded Panthers, who finished their season at 9-16.
Cole's 3-pointer with 5:10 left in the first quarter gave Buffalo Grove an 8-7 lead. Eric Soifer, who scored 9 of his 11 points in the first quarter, followed with a pair of deep 3-pointers for a 14-7 lead.
Buffalo Grove connected on five 3-pointers in the initial quarter which kept the Round Lake defense honest.
"We started out hot," said Nowakowski. "We have really been focused in practice. We knew as seniors it could be the last game any night in the playoffs."
The Bison led 24-18 against a young but talented Round Lake team.
Steller showings from sophomores Hakim Williams (22 points) and Nick Pierre (14 points) kept the Panthers in the game.
Junior Kevonne Peterson added 13 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter when Round Lake made a late run.
"They never quit," said Buffalo Grove coach Keith Peterson. "They just kept fighting. It was a good tough matchup for us."
BG led 41-26 with three minutes left in the first half but Round Lake would respond with a run that cut the lead to 43-35 with 1:24 left.
Baskets by Tyler Kipley and 2 baskets from Cole opened up a 54-35 lead to start the second half.
Leading 76-56 after two Nowakowski free throws, the Panthers rallied to close to 78-69 with 2:30 left but could get no closer.
"It's been impressive what this team has done without our top two scorers," said Nowakowski.
"We fought all year long," said Round Lake coach Jay Iden, who is in his first season as the Panthers' head coach.
"We went from zero wins last year to nine this year. This team is creating a buzz around school. We've impressed upon them to play 32 minutes every game. We want to change people's minds about what we can do."