Growth, grit and glory for CG Buddies basketball

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The Cary-Grove Buddies Basketball squads did really well to close out their seasons, as the Gray team earned third place and Blue team earned second place in the Special Olympics Regional Tournament. 

The first game for Trojans (Gray) was against the Broncos of Barrington High School. Cary-Grove and Barrington went back-and-forth for the duration of the contest, as BHS eked out a narrow 50-46 win. 

“That’s a lot of points on the board,” Coach Emily Schnake stated. 

The fact CG was so close to winning didn’t deflate a bit of their confidence, as CG demolished the Cougars of Cove in a 48-24 win to take 3rd place in the regional tournament. 

Tyler Hadzima led the Trojans with 22 points and a handful of rebounds in the contest. 

“I think I did pretty good,” Hadzima stated when asked about his performance this season. 

As for other players that jumped off the page for the Trojans, Hadzima acknowledge Garrett Schaffer as someone who did well, especially with his awesome performance in the first game of regionals. 

“(He) did a pretty good job,” Hadzima said. 

Leading up to the regionals, there were aspects of the Gray team’s game that they seeked to fix, such as traveling and defense, and to Coach Schnake, the repairs came and held up as strong as “Flex Glue” following close losses and some troubles overall. 

“Nobody really was traveling anymore,” Coach Schnake said. “Our shots, we learned that we can’t just chuck the ball up right from the three point line. We learned that we have to get inside the paint to make those baskets. 

“One of the biggest things, too: learning how to play defense. That was one of our biggest improvements.” 

Jake Garcia added improved “shooting” was another aspect to the Trojans’ success, and Ghio Campos stated that “rebounding” was another piece to the puzzle. 

Coach Schnake said that her group of stars “played their hearts out,” and they certainly did based on the accomplishments around CG Buddies basketball (CG Blue earned second place in Regionals, and Trojans Gray earned 3rd, as alluded to in the opener). 

This year, and last year as well, presented a lot of opportunities to grow and to play as one strong unit, to Coach Schnake.
“The biggest thing (is) to see how our team has grown, and how they have learned to work together,” she said. 

“(Coach Tammy Jauch) and I both agreed that at the end of [the season], these two teams played amazing, and they worked really, really hard, and they did not give up.”