Downers North responds to Glenbard West
Sometimes it takes an extra little nudge to motivate a team to victory.
A couple of brief fourth-quarter deficits wound up pushing Downers Grove North’s boys basketball team to a strong finish in Saturday’s 54-48 West Suburban Silver win over Glenbard West on Senior Night in Glen Ellyn.
“We haven’t won in a while, and we really wanted this one,” said Trojans forward Ross Johnson, who scored a team-high 16 points. “Last time they beat us with four seconds left with a runner, so this time we did not want to let them do that again. Once they got the lead we knew we had to come back.”
Glenbard West (7-15, 2-8) took its first second-half lead at 46-44 on Jeff Levesque’s running layup, but Downers North’s Alex Vogler responded with a 3-pointer to put the Trojans back on top at 47-46.
The pivotal moment came with a minute, 19 seconds left in the game when Glenbard West’s Michael Mache, who led all scorers with 24 points, got a steal and made two free throws at the other end to give the Hilltoppers (7-15, 2-8) a late lead of 48-47.
The Trojans (9-16, 2-9) immediately answered with D.J. Cienawa’s bucket, putting them ahead to stay at 49-48. In fact Glenbard West didn’t score again.
A missed 3-pointer for the lead and two missed free throws to tie proved to be among the many squandered opportunities during the Hilltoppers’ second-half rally.
“It’s too bad for our seniors, I wanted them to get a win on Senior Night,” said Hilltoppers coach Tim Hoder. “We worked awful hard to get back in it in the second half. A lot of times that kind of momentum is enough to carry you through. They let us back into it, but then they were able to finish it out. That’s a credit to them.”
Downers North scored the game’s final 7 points, including the last 5 points from the line on free throws by Johnson and Tom Wengren, who finished with 13 points.
The Trojans tore to a 24-15 halftime lead, but Glenbard West chipped away throughout the third quarter. Mache scored 17 of his points in the second half, highlighted by 9-of-10 free-throw shooting, as the Hilltoppers pulled within 2 points twice in the third quarter.
Glenbard West twice came 2 points away early in the fourth quarter before baskets by Deshawn Elliott and Mache finally tied the game at 42 apiece with four minutes left.
“The kids hung in there and did a great job,” said Downers North coach Jim Thomas. “It turned out to be a great game. You win on the road on someone else’s Senior Night. You take a win any time, but this was a great effort.”