Boys Basketball: Buffalo Grove holds off Wheeling

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Buffalo Grove December 2 2011. Buffalo Grove's Alex Fritz (20) brings the ball down-court, Friday, at home vs. Rolling Meadows. | Dave Shields~For Suntimes Media.

Updated: February 27, 2012 8:23AM

Buffalo Grove jumped out to an 18-3 lead over Wheeling just six minutes into Saturday night’s Mid-Suburban League East game at Wheeling.

It brought back memories of the last time the rivals faced off, in December, when the Bison took a 43-8 lead and mauled the Wildcats 82-40.

This time, it wasn’t so easy. It took some tense moments — and an unlikely hero — to save the day for Buffalo Grove in a closer-than-expected 57-52 victory.

“They definitely came back fighting a lot more,” said BG guard Alex Fritz. “Last time, we got off to a huge run and shot down their confidence. But here they started hitting some shots, and (Wheeling guard Jeremy) Stephani, he’s a good shooter. They started feeling it and that made the difference between last time and (Saturday night).”

Fritz is normally the third or fourth offensive option for the Bison, but on a night when leading scorer Luke Potnick (5 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists) couldn’t hit a shot, and second-leading scorer Sam Wacker (11 points, 6 rebounds) also struggled, Fritz led the team with 15 points and grabbed five boards. Andrew Apel added 12 points, and Rich Zirngibl had eight points and a game-high eight rebounds.

With BG clinging to a 49-46 lead with 1:10 remaining, Fritz made one free throw but missed the second. He hustled in to rebound the miss and converted a layup, extending the lead to six points and effectively ending any Wheeling comeback effort.

“I saw it was going to be a little off, and I knew before anyone else that it wasn’t going in,” Fritz said. “The two guys on the outside pinched in instead of one of them coming to the shooter, so I thought, ‘Go run for the ball, make it a layup and make a tougher two-possession game for them.’ ”

More than his offensive contributions, however, Fritz helped to win the game with his defensive effort. Wheeling made its comeback on the heels of sophomore sharpshooter Stephani, but Fritz stepped up in the second half.

Stephani hit his fifth three-pointer to give Wheeling its first lead at 37-36 with under four minutes to go in the fourth quarter, but he never scored again.

“That was my assignment,” Fritz said. “My assignment wasn’t to score, that’s the secondary thing. My assignment was to stop Stephani, and I guarded him most of the second half and fourth quarter. My goal was just not to let him touch the ball.”

BG coach Ryan O’Connor was excited to see someone else step up when his stars weren’t getting it done later in the game. And if the Bison can capture the feeling, they might be able to play more than just spoiler come tournament time in March.

“Alex is a really tough kid — he competed and he wanted to win,” O’Connor said. “Defending Stephani is tough — they run a lot of screens for him, a lot of sets for him. Alex hit some outside shots for us, had three threes in the first half. He was doing it on both ends of the floor. When you’re a scorer like Luke, you’re going to have nights when you struggle and you have to contribute in other ways. I thought Sam Wacker struggled as well, so we needed somebody to step up, and Alex did.”

Buffalo Grove hosts Elk Grove on Friday and heads to Skokie to play Niles West on Saturday.

“I told the guys after the game, we’re 6-12 and we had lost four in a row,” O’Connor added. “We had been in a number of games tied or a two-point game going into the fourth quarter, and we just haven’t gotten it done so far. We showed a lot of character, guys just buckling down and we finally got over the hump. Hopefully this is some momentum we can build off, and we’re trying to play our best basketball in March.”