Bison Run Out of Time Against New Trier

might be wishing its game against New Trier was a few minutes longer.

The Bison made a furious late rally against New Trier, but ran out of time in a 64-60 loss to the Trevians in Buffalo Grove Tuesday night.

New Trier (7-8) led by as many as 18 in the fourth quarter before the Bison (10-6) finally generated some quick offense.

Junior Connor Boehm had 24 points and 12 rebounds for the Trevians to lead all scorers. The 6-7 center dominated the game inside, especially with Bison center Sam Wacker fighting through an ankle injury.

“He’s a load inside,” Buffalo Grove coach Ryan O’Connor said of Boehm. “We kind of figured we’d have a difficult time with him.”

The teams traded baskets early and were tied at 12 after the first quarter. The Trevians started the second quarter on a 13-4 run and took a 29-20 lead into halftime.

Buffalo Grove sharpshooting guard Nick Prus only had four points in the first half. The Bison didn’t get the perimeter game going until late in the contest.

“We were hoping that we could win the game out on the perimeter a little bit and we didn’t do that for long enough periods of time to win,” O’Connor said.

Boehm took over in the third, scoring 10 points, and the Trevians’ lead stretched out to 16.

Boehm’s success was another example of Buffalo Grove’s reliance on Wacker to defend the paint. Boehm dominated when Wacker, who played in limited minutes, was on the bench.

“I thought Kevin Tennenbaum did a decent job inside tonight,” O’Connor said in his team’s defense. “He did the best that he could. We play a really team oriented scheme and we need to do a better job all around. It’s not just on Sam’s shoulders and it’s not just on Kevin’s shoulders. We got to do a better job of contesting the perimeter and I think if we do that the inside becomes a lot easier.”

The Bison wouldn’t go away and pulled to within 11 by the end of the quarter. However, another Trevian run made it 53-35. This seemed to be the knockout blow. The game appeared over. Then, all of a sudden, the Bison pulled a rally out of nowhere.

A quick 11-2 run got the Bison within nine with less than three minutes to go. Yet again, New Trier responded. Freshman Jordan Thomas, who had 12 points, made four free throws to extend the lead to 13 and seemingly end the rally. Buffalo Grove had other thoughts.

A combination of quick baskets and missed free throws by New Trier got the Bison within five in the final minute. However, a pair of late turnovers prevented the Bison from getting a shot off to get within a score.

Dan Recht, who had 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds, made a three from just inside half court at the buzzer to cut the final deficit to four. The late comeback had O’Connor wishing his team played like that earlier in the game.

“They switched a lot on us and we didn’t do a real good job of taking the ball to the basket up until the fourth quarter and really the second half of the fourth quarter,” the coach said. “There was a huge difference in our scoring when we started going to the rim.”

Prus was a big part of the comeback, scoring eight points in the fourth to finish with a team best 14. Jeff Zabrin had 10 points.