When all seemed lost Friday night, Buffalo Grove refused to panic. The Bison rallied from a 12-point deficit to defeat Elk Grove 57-55 and deny the Grenadiers the outright Mid-Suburban League East title.
Brad DeSimone did most of the damage, scoring eight of his nine points in the last quarter to lead the Bison to the upset.
Elk Grove (15-11, 6-3), which was led by Alex Malinowski’s 15 points, can still walk away with the East crown with a victory at Rolling Meadows on Friday. Buffalo Grove (16-7, 5-4) still has an outside chance to tie the Grens with a win Friday at Wheeling coupled with an Elk Grove loss.
“Our game plan at the half was to crawl back into this game,” said DeSimone, a junior guard. “We were still pretty confident we could win the game.”
The Grens came out looking like conference champions, jumping to a 20-13 advantage after one quarter and a 34-26 lead at halftime. Elk Grove led 44-32 with 3 minutes 41 seconds left in the third period when Brad Fox hit a layup. But the hosts couldn’t finish.
“It was a classic example of not stamping them out when we had the chance,” Elk Grove coach Steve Messer said.
