WHEELING — The Buffalo Grove boys basketball team hung tough with Notre Dame for the first quarter of the teams’ first-round game at the Wheeling Hardwood Classic, but the Dons dominated after that. Notre Dame pulled away for a 70-37 victory.
Notre Dame’s led 28-15 at halftime and 52-26 by the end of the third. Notre Dame (8-1) outscored Buffalo Grove 24-11 in the third quarter to put the game safely out of reach.
Notre Dame’s Joe Mooney led the team in scoring with 15 points. The Dons also scored effectively in the paint as junior center Anthony D’Avanzo (13 points) and junior forward Ammar Becar (12) both reached double figures.
The Bison’s zone slowed down Notre Dame’s potent offense at the start of the game, yet a 9-0 run late in the first quarter put the Dons ahead 15-10 heading into the second.
“I thought we started out the game with a lot of energy,” Buffalo Grove coach Keith Peterson said. “I think in the third quarter, we didn’t come out with quite the energy. We weren’t very strong with the basketball. We weren’t moving the ball very crisply, and we had to go to a man [defense] — and really we were overmatched when we went man. That’s why we went zone for most of the game. Once we went man there, their size and their physicality kind of took us out of our game.”
Sophomore guard Collin Dekorski led Buffalo Grove (1-9) with nine points.
Notre Dame advanced to play Prospect at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday.