Glenbard West knocks off York

The Glenbard West girls basketball team had the winning recipe Thursday night at home against West Suburban Silver rival York.

The Hilltoppers took one huge chunk of strong defense and mixed it with just enough offense to win 39-28.

"Defensively, I could not ask for anything more. We did a tremendous job on defense," said Glenbard West coach Karen Persinger, whose team improved to 14-8 overall and 3-6 in conference.

The game started with an even amount of offense coming from the teams. The Hilltoppers led 10-9 at the end of the first eight minutes on 4-of-11 shooting from the field. The Dukes (14-9, 3-5) shot even better, 4 of 8.

Ice formed on both offenses in the second quarter, with no field goals from either team on 0-of-7 shooting from each squad. York's lone points came from two free throws from Danielle Dennis, who shared game-high scorer honors with Glenbard West's Catherine Reedy. Each scored 13 points.

Reedy's three free throws were the Hilltoppers' scoring during the second period.

In the third quarter the ice started falling off the Glenbard West offense. The team shot 4 of 12 and put through 11 points to York's 7 for a 24-18 lead at the end of 24 minutes.

A short jumpshot by Jamiyah Thomas with 6:36 left in the third was the first field goal for either team. About 10 seconds later, a York turnover turned into a basket by Katelyn Heller. She was fouled on the play and made the subsequent free throw and the Hilltoppers led 18-11.

"I told them to open things up in the second half and play basketball," Persinger said. "I let them go and they opened up. They opened up our sets. That helped make the basket look bigger than smaller."

A basket by Samantha Skirvin with 6:22 left in the game put the Hilltoppers ahead by 10 for the first time in the game. The Dukes narrowed the Glenbard West lead to 8. In the last 33 seconds of the contest, the Hilltoppers went 5 of 6 from the free-throw line with four of them coming from Sammy Harris.

"It's hard to catch fire when you were so stagnant in the first half," said York coach Maggie Ely.

Heller followed Reedy on the Glenbard West scoresheet with 9 points. Thomas finished with 8 rebounds and Persinger praised her defense and praised the bench play of Cameron Kruse, Ellie Sear, Cali Villasenor, Molly Stutelberg and Rose Mugnani.

"For us to continue to build on what we're doing, we need what the kids coming off the bench are contributing," Persinger said.