Max Christie carries Rolling Meadows past Buffalo Grove

It was almost a year ago to the day.

Buffalo Grove and Rolling Meadows staged an instant classic, one of the best boys basketball games in Mid-Suburban League history back in early February of 2020.

There was a rowdy, standing-room-only crowd at Buffalo Grove.

Double overtime.

A fight for first place in the conference.

A combined 88 points between the superstars from each team, Max Christie of Rolling Meadows (42 points) and Kam Craft of Buffalo Grove (46 points).

"Remembering that from last year, it was such a great game," Christie said.

"That was a crazy game," Craft said. "It's been a long time since then and a lot of things have changed."

Now, 364 days and a world of changes in society later, a few things were different in the 2021 version of Buffalo Grove versus Rolling Meadows.

For starters, there were masks: on players, on coaches, on referees, on fans. And there were only a sprinkling of fans in the stands at Rolling Meadows. Pretty much only parents.

But one thing that was similar is that even in the season opener for both teams after months of shutdowns and uncertainty, Buffalo Grove and Rolling Meadows made it another dramatic finish in the end.

Not overtime dramatic. But Buffalo Grove, after being down by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter, had the ball and a chance to tie the game with about two seconds left.

But a turnover by the Bison gave the ball back to Rolling Meadows and Christie sealed the deal with a couple of free throws to give the host Mustangs a 68-63 victory.

"It was the first game and it got a little messy. We started out well but at the end it got a little bit away from us," Christie said. "They (Buffalo Grove) got into their groove, but all that matters is that we closed it out in the end."

Christie finished with a game-high 25 points to lead Rolling Meadows, which starts the season at 1-0.

Craft, who was relentlessly defended with double-teams, traps, face-guarding and a diamond-and-one, finished with 15 points but made an old-fashioned 3-point play with 11.7 seconds left to cut Buffalo Grove's deficit to just one point, 64-63.

Christie, a Michigan State recruit, then made 2 free throws to put Rolling Meadows up 66-63 but then the Bison had the ball back and in Craft's hands with about 8 seconds left but the ball went out of bounds and then Christie drained his final two free throws.

"We fought back really hard at the end and made it a one-possession game," Craft said. "I'm just really proud of our guys. I'm the only returning starter. We've got a bunch of new guys. It's a great learning experience for the future."

Buffalo Grove (0-1) also got 15 points out of Kyle Brosnahan, 12 points from Adidas Davis and 10 points from Steph Harris.

The Mustangs had three other players in double-figures besides Christie: Daniel Sobkowicz with 14 points, Cameron Christie, Max's younger brother, with 14 points and Orlando Thomas with 11 points.

"I thought about it tonight that this gym would have had 4,000 fans in it like last year's game," Rolling Meadows coach Kevin Katovich said. "But we were all just happy that we got to play."