Buffalo Grove runs past Hoffman Estates
Buffalo Grove finished a stretch of three games in four nights with a convincing 64-31 Mid-Suburban League boys basketball crossover victory at Hoffman Estates Monday.
After leading the host Hawks 19-16 after the first quarter, the Bison (6-2) put the game away outscoring Hoffman 39-13 in the middle two quarters.
A 9-point run stretched BG's lead from 22-18 to 31-18, and the Bison led 35-23 at halftime.
Buffalo Grove got a defensive spark in the second quarter from Sloan Kipley.
"He did a great job on defense," teammate Kam Craft said. "He settled down our defense, and overall we started playing better as a team. We were able to pull away in the second quarter and continue on in the second half."
"I was really pleased with our defensive effort," Buffalo Grove coach Keith Peterson said. "We've not had a problem this year putting the ball in the basket, but we've struggled a bit defensively here and there.
"The guys keep working, keep grinding. We had a lot of good individual efforts."
Craft contributed a pair of 3s in the second quarter and scored 14 of his game-high 22 points in the first half.
"I think that's one of Kam's best all-around games the last two years," Peterson said. "He did a great job of moving the basketball, great job rebounding and great job playing defense.
"If you ask him, he had some shots he'd normally knock down. A 'quiet 22' is pretty impressive in two and a half quarters."
Craft contributed 6 of Buffalo Grove's 23 third-quarter points, and a 9-point burst gave the Bison a 58-29 margin going into the fourth quarter. Tyler Fricke scored all 7 of his points in the final 90 seconds of the third quarter.
"Tyler got a spot start tonight out of the blue," Peterson said. "He came in a gave us great minutes. Alex Solberg got hurt. Tyler's been great for us in practice. He earned (the start)."
The Bison backed Craft with a balanced attack. Nate Cole scored 8 points and led the team with 6 rebounds. Matt Brunelli also scored 8, and Tyler Kipley and Kyle Brosnahan each scored 5.
"Record-wise, I'm really pleased with where we're at so far," Peterson said. "We've had a pretty tough schedule with three games in four days. We've got to keep getting better. The guys understand that."
Nahum Smith-Hernandez led the Hawks (4-2) with 11 points.
"It was a rough game. I felt it in pregame," Hoffman coach Luke Yanule said. "We're not doing the little things to make our program sustainable. We're not mentally prepared. We were not ready for the game. We've got to fix it now.
"All the credit in the world to Buffalo Grove. They ran out on us. It was by far a season high for the most runouts. They shot the heck out of it in the first half. They deserved to win the game."