Lisle defeats Westmont
A 10-0 run to start the second half switched the momentum for the Lisle boys basketball team, and it defeated conference rival Westmont 67-62 on Friday at Westmont.
The 18-point third quarter was the difference maker as the Lions (4-19, 3-3) came back from a 36-28 halftime score to claim the Interstate Eight Small victory.
“We had 16 minutes to make up 8 points and we didn’t need to do it right away, (but) they went ahead and did it right away,” said Lisle coach Mark LaScala. “We talked about staying disciplined and running our offense and not deviating from what we practiced everyday and they showed more discipline tonight in 32 minutes than they have in any other game this year.”
Westmont’s Montraveous Little was the standout of the first half, dropping 15 of his game high 23 points. Little drove hard to the hoop in the first 16 minutes, getting to the line and going 10 of 12.
Little and the Sentinels (5-16, 2-3) put Lisle’s bigs under a lot of pressure throughout the game as the closely called game put the Lions under a good amount of foul trouble.
Center Shane Murray and forward Zach Trussell fouled out for the Lions, so it was up to senior Jeremy Glavanovits to pick up the slack. The 6-foot-6 forward had 10 points in the second half, giving him a game total of 15 points for the Lions.
“It’s tough. We’ve been in a bunch of games like that this year,” Glavanovits said. “It’s difficult but we need to keep our composure and that’s what we did in order to win the game. You have to keep a level head and worry about the next play, forget about the last play because you can’t do anything about it.”
It was the Lions who continued to inch themselves toward victory with some good work by Glavanovits and senior guard Nick Massura, who ended with a team-high 17 points. The work from the two seniors helped Lisle outshoot Westmont 21-17 in the fourth and earn the victory.
Westmont coach Craig Etheridge said the loss of a couple guys to injury, including starting point guard Danny LoGiurato, really hurt the Sentinels down the stretch.
“Their big guys are good players and unfortunately we’re a little undermanned today,” Etheridge said. “We had a couple guys out today with injury so we didn’t have a lot of depth. The game went the way I expected it to, unfortunately we got tired and we missed some layups in the second half which I think was primarily the difference maker.”