Not pretty, but effective. That’s the MSL style of basketball. In Tuesday’s crossover game at Rolling Meadows (0-8), Palatine (6-3) outlasted the winless Mustangs to extend their win streak to four games.

Tuesday night’s game started out fast, with the two teams exchanging three’s for the first half. Rolling Meadow’s Lothery had himself quite a night, hitting 4 triples, finishing with 15 points. Murphy added on 16 for the Mustangs.

At halftime the score was even at 27 points a piece. Meadows came out of the break faster than the Pirates, putting themselves up 10 with 3:12 left in the third quarter. That’s when Palatine’s bench showed up.

The Pirates went on a 9-2 run to make the score 41-38 heading into the fourth. The Mustangs were once again able to get out to a 9 point lead. That lead was eaten away by the bench, led by senior Charlie Van Dyke who scored a team high 14 points, 12 coming off threes.

Palatine went on a 12-0 run that put them up 51-48 with just over three minutes left in the game. Rolling Meadows was put at the line with :08 left on the clock, trailing by a score of 55-54. After the second free throw hit off the rim, Palatine senior Matt Ulrich grabbed the board and was sent to the line himself.

Ulrich made one and give the Mustangs a chance to win with a buzzer beating three pointer. Meadow’s chance at their first win was taken away by senior Jason Jarrett, when got a steal to seal the victory for the Pirates.

“We were fortunate to be able to rally from those deficits in the second half,” Van Dyke said. “We were also able to make some huge plays down the stretch tonight.”

Palatine returns to conference play Friday night when they visit Hoffman Estates at 7:30 pm.