Ptak's 3-pointer gives Hampshire consolation win over Buffalo Grove
Hampshire junior guard Sam Ptak's wrong move turned out to be the right move with seconds remaining in the second overtime at the Wheeling Hardwood Classic Thursday night.
The Whip-Purs' Tristan Villareal had taken a charge with 20 seconds left to give Hampshire the ball back with the game tied at 70.
"That charge was really big for us," said Hampshire coach Mike Featherly, who played with Buffalo Grove coach Keith Peterson at Palatine.
Ptak then described what happen.
"We had an isolation play set up for Miles Wiggins," said Ptak. "and I messed up the play. I made a mistake. I was supposed to go to the left corner but I ran to the right corner. The play wasn't there for Wiggins and he kicked the ball to me and I hit the 3-point shot. Best mistake of my life."
Ptak's shot gave Hampshire a 73-70 win over Buffalo Grove in the consolation championship.
Hampshire (4-10) pushed the game to overtime when Joey Costabile connected in the lane at the buzzer to tie the score at 63.
Buffalo Grove (7-7) had a chance to win the game in overtime but its shot fell short of the basket.
"What a great game this was," said Peterson. "Down the stretch we missed some free throws and layups that hurt us, but that's high school basketball. I'm just so proud how our guys fought back to get into the game. We just had some things that didn't go our way."
Things started out well for Hampshire in the first quarter as the Whips connected on 11 of 13 shots to lead 27-13 after leading 22-5 with 2:20 left in the quarter.
"The basket looked like the ocean," said Featherly. "We had to be more assertive and aggressive than we were against them several weeks ago."
Featherly pointed out that in a 50-43 loss to the Bison two weeks ago the Whip-Purs committed 23 turnovers and were 12 of 23 from the free-throw line.
"We had to clean things like that up," said Featherly. "We had to pass more and dribble less."
Hampshire had 11 assists and 5 steals.
Nicholas Lewis led Hampshire with 16 points, Ptak had 15, and Adam Ugochukwu had 15 points and 7 rebounds. Costabile had 13 points for Hampshire.
"We did a really good job eliminating turnovers and that was the key to the win," said Ptak. We really wanted this one since we lost to them a few weeks ago."
BG had some stellar performers also.
Adidas Davis led the Bison with 20 points to go with 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Sophomore Connor Woodlin sank 5 3-pointers as part of his 16 points. Jacob Heinrich added 10 points. Aiden Romanski had 8 points.
"They shot the ball well," said Peterson of Hampshire. "They made a tough shot at the end of regulation and then at the end of the game."
Hampshire finished the game hitting 26 of 43 shots for a 60.5%. The Bison shot 46 % on 23 of 50.