Sullivan, York stop Glenbard West
No matter how many ways York’s boys basketball team can win games, somehow it always involves Will Sullivan.
Sullivan and the Dukes overcame a collective shooting struggle and plowed to a 59-52 West Suburban Silver win over Glenbard West on Friday in Elmhurst.
Sullivan, who scored a game-high 26 points, and backcourt mate David Cohn combined for 44 of the team’s points despite managing only one 3-pointer between them. By finishing strong at the basket, York (16-8, 7-3) began to roll late in the third quarter.
“We tried to stick with it and in the third quarter we finally started hitting some shots,” said Sullivan, who shot 9 of 24 from the field and 7 of 10 from the line. “Sometimes the shots aren’t going to fall, but it’s pretty rare that myself, David Cohn and Cody Kliethermes aren’t hitting shots. So we started to attack the rim and started working inside-out. I thought we played really well down the stretch.”
Two big runs allowed Glenbard West (7-14, 2-7) to push York to the edge. The Hilltoppers closed the first quarter with a 13-1 run, capped by Justin Taylor’s 3-pointer, to claim a 13-10 lead after a quarter and then used an 8-0 run to retake a 38-32 advantage midway through the third quarter on Michael Mache’s basket.
That’s when York flipped the switch. Behind a flurry of turnovers, Sullivan and Cohn scored 12 straight points to build a 46-41 Dukes lead early in the fourth quarter. They took the lead for good on Sullivan’s 3-pointer and Cohn’s steal and basket in the final minute of the third quarter.
“They were pressuring us and we made a couple of turnovers, and they were able to convert them into layups,” said Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder. “That hurt us because we were up by a couple of buckets. You can’t do that against a good team. You can’t let them get an easy run, especially at the end of the quarter to change the momentum.”
Poor free-throw shooting forced Glenbard West into its deepest hole of 54-43 with just less than two minutes left in the game. Five-of-eight shooting from the line in the final minute allowed the Dukes to hang on.
Mache finished with 14 points and 9 rebounds for the Hilltoppers, while Jeff Levesque scored 8 of his 12 points from the line.
“It’s always hard to win in this conference,” said York coach Dominic Cannon. “But I thought we came together pretty well at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth.”