Hilltoppers hang tough for win

There is, of course, no margin that is closer than 1 point in girls basketball.

But the distance between the 44 points Glenbard West scored and the 43 points tallied by Oak Park-River Forest on Thursday marked a massive mountain scaled by the Hilltoppers.

"We probably would have caved at the beginning of the season," Glenbard West junior Kathryn Lux said. "If it was a close game at the end, we would have had a couple of turnovers and we would have ended up losing."

Certainly there were nerves as the Hilltoppers (5-5, 2-1) watched the Huskies recover from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter of this West Suburban Silver game.

But the hosts got points when they needed them and managed to hang on.

"We have the potential to win these kind of games, and to win one feels really great," Glenbard West sophomore Abigail Hastings said.

Glenbard West survived 10 fourth-quarter turnovers -- though that was only 3 more than Oak Park-River Forest committed. The Huskies went on an 11-2 run to start the final quarter.

"We've been working on handling pressure the last two weeks for the majority of our practices," Glenbard West coach Mike Hofland said. "We struggled a little here, which was disappointing. But the girls did some good things and we've improved."

One of the reasons Glenbard West survived was that it moved from a 22-18 halftime lead to a 37-26 margin after three quarters. Lux was key. She scored 7 of her game-high 19 points in the quarter.

"Our key thing is to get the ball inside," Lux said. "That's what we've been working on in practices, having our guards get the ball inside. Everything happens when the ball's inside. Rebounding is key too."

Hastings had 9 points and 8 rebounds despite playing with foul trouble much of the game. She picked up her second foul with 3:44 left in the second quarter and her third with 3:42 to play in the third quarter -- though she did not pick up a fourth foul in the contest.

"She was very active today," Hofland said. "When you see her when we run our high-low offense, she's a great passer. She's always been solid. But she was more of a standout tonight, even with the foul trouble."

Hastings had 5 of her team's 6 fourth-quarter rebounds.

"We wanted to win and we needed to finish," Hastings said. "(Hofland) keeps saying we need to play to the finish of the game and that it's not over until the last quarter."

Oak Park-River Forest scored the final points of the game on a Miki Carter rebound layup with one second to play. Following a timeout, Lux threw the inbound pass to Rachel Folan, who tapped the ball and allowed the clock to expire.

Carter led the Huskies with 14 points and 9 rebounds.

-- Darryl Mellema

Naperville Central 69, West Chicago 43:ŒNaperville Central has the ability to beat an opponent in a variety of ways, most of which were on display at West Chicago.

Defense and rebounding made the biggest difference in this DuPage Valley Conference matchup, and the Redhawks had plenty of both.

"I was very pleased with our defensive intensity, and we maintained it no matter which five we had out there," Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said. "We've got some interchangeable parts and can go super quick or super big."

It started with backcourt pressure, which created one turnover after another in the first half. Kelley Hendrick, who led the Redhawks with 6 steals, made it difficult for the Wildcats to run their offense.

"They would ball-fake, but I could see their eyes and know if they were going to pass it my way, and I'd get a jump on it," Hendrick said.

The Redhawks opened a 12-6 lead midway through the first quarter, and half of those points came off turnovers. Katie Atwood canned her second 3-pointer as part of an 11-2 run as Naperville Central extended its lead to 21-11 at the end of one quarter.

While Hendrick, Atwood, and Emma Ondik were staking their claim to the perimeter, Jessica Carter was making the low post her own. The senior forward set up shop inside and pulled down 9 boards in the first half as the Redhawks blew the game open and led 41-15 at the break.

"My layups weren't going in, which was frustrating, but I was still able to help the team," Carter said.

For a young team that's committed to a season-long growing experience as West Chicago is, any taste of success against a team like Naperville Central can pay off in the long run. The Wildcats (0-9, 0-2) earned a little victory in the third quarter when they outscored their opponents 14-12.

"My kids were a little intimidated, but we don't give up, and we're going to keep working on what we need to do," West Chicago coach Kim Wallner said.

Jessica Baids, who led the Wildcats with 11 points, and Chrissie Rovtar turned in some tough minutes underneath.

Atwood led the Redhawks (7-2, 2-0) with 13 points, Hendrick scored 11 and Lisa Lawrence added 10.

"We had reasonably balanced scoring, and we're playing pretty good team basketball," Nussbaum said.

-- Henry Perez

Wheaton North 62, West Aurora 52:ŒAllie Cerone knows when she needs to step up for her Wheaton North teammates.

One of those moments happened against West Aurora.

Cerone committed a foul, her fourth, early in third period, sitting her down during a critical part of the game.

Cerone came back into the game in the fourth quarter and made up for lost time, scoring 10 points in the final period for the Falcons (5-2, 2-0) in a come-from-behind victory.

"I had a stupid foul that put me on the bench," Cerone said. "I felt I needed to make it up to my teammates for letting them down. I hope I did."

The Falcons got out of the gates quickly, starting the game on a 15-3 run. Senior forward Michelle Scandora scored 8 points in the first four minutes of the game.

West Aurora made the game close in the first half, scratching its way back to a 25-20 deficit at halftime.

To start the third quarter the Blackhawks (4-4, 1-1) went on a 15-4 run to open up a lead as large as 6 points.

"They came out really strong and aggressive to start the third quarter," Wheaton North coach David Eaton said. "We came out extremely flat to start the half. They played well during that span."

Then it was Cerone's chance to shine.

When the fourth quarter started the Falcons trailed by 3 points. With the game tied 49, Cerone hit a 3-pointer in the right corner with 2:08 to play to give the Falcons a lead they would not give up the rest of the game. Cerone scored 8 of her 16 points in the final 2:08 of the game.

"It was the same as all the other 3s I have hit in my career," Cerone said. "The only thing different with that 3 was that it gave us all the momentum we needed to pull the game out."

"Allie is a team captain and she deserves all the respect she gets," Eaton said. "She leads by example and tonight she did."

To end the game, the Falcons outscored the Blackhawks 15-3 in the final 2:31.

"We ran out of gas a little bit," West Aurora coach Conie Siljendahl said. "We got really tired and we got into some foul trouble. We didn't score, we had calls go against us, it just seemed like anything that could go against us did."

Kyra Watson scored a game-high 17 points and had 11 rebounds in the loss.

Scandora also scored 17 poins in the win while Jamei Shin had 10 and Madison Goudy chipped in with 8 points in the win.

-- Jason Watt

Lisle 37, Peotone 26:ŒLisle (3-6, 3-1) finished strongly with a 15-4 fourth quarter to win the Interstate Eight Conference contest.

Sara Urban led the Lions with a game-high 12 points. Nicole Urban chipped in 7.

Boys basketball

Bartlett 66, Lake Park 60:ŒDespite trailing through most of Thursday's game, the Bartlett Hawks tightened up on defense while turning around a poor free-throw shooting performance to pull off a come-from-behind 66-60 Upstate Eight Conference win over Lake Park.

With just less than two minutes left to play, Cory Hrynyk took a steal down for a turnaround layup to avoid the block and give the Hawks (3-3, 1-1) the lead for good in Roselle.

"We just kept on playing hard," Hrynyk said. "We had the mental mindset to not give up, and we just pulled it off in the end."

Entering the second half, Hrynyk had only 4 points while the Hawks as a team went 1 of 8 at the line, but Hrynyk finished the game with 21 points while the Hawks went 11 of 20 at the line.

"We created turnovers in the second half," said Hawks coach Jim Wolfsmith. "We got the ball to Cory and dumped it to (Kamil) Janton. And unlike most of the rest of the game, we started nailing our free throws."

The Hawks had faced the deficit most of the night, holding only four leads through the first three quarters for a short amount of time, as the Lancers (2-5; 0-2) were hitting from behind the arc.

The Lancers hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter as Jason Sotira nailed a buzzer-beater almost 10 feet behind the arc to give Lake Park a 14-12 lead, which opened the flood gates for all 15 of the Lancers' second-quarter points coming from 3-point range.

The Lancers went on a 12-0 run early in the second as Sotira nailed a couple 3s. Lake Park opened a healthy 26-14 lead, but the Hawks finished the half down only 4.

"I think we let them hang in there too much," said Lancers coach Cray Allen. "If you let a team stick around, they'll eventually find a way."

Sotira led the Lancers with 17 points, including five 3-pointers while Danny Baylis had 14 points, including four 3-pointers, but it was a lack of assists that did Lake Park in.

"If you have 33 points of perimeter scoring and only 4 or 5 assists, that's not good," Allen said.

Janton and Luke Labedski each finished with 19 points for the Hawks to back up Hrynyk's second-half performance.

"(Hrynyk and Janton) are both Division I players, and they're key players for us," Wolfsmith said. "That's why I have them out there."

-- Seth Hancock

East Aurora 78, St. Charles East 54:ŒEveryone knows there's no better place in the area to watch a high school basketball game than East Aurora's storied gymnasium.

But just how much is that home court advantage worth to the Tomcats?

Try 20 points, at least from St. Charles East's perspective.

Two weeks ago the Saints played a competitive game against the Tomcats for 32 minutes at St. Charles East's Thanksgiving tournament before losing 56-52.

Thursday in Aurora it was an entirely different story. The Tomcats gave their fans plenty to cheer about, hitting eight 3-pointers, forcing 24 turnovers and converting one easy layup after another in a 78-54 victory.

And East Aurora (5-2, 2-0) did it without its best player, sophomore Tramell Weathersby, who is suspended for disciplinary reasons. It didn't matter, as the Tomcats outscored the Saints 26-12 in the third quarter to extend their 7-point halftime lead to 21.

"East Aurora feeds off energy at home and we didn't make enough plays in that third quarter so they had the energy the entire quarter," St. Charles East coach Brian Clodi said.

East Aurora starters Weathersby and Andrew Dockery both missed last weekend. Dockery, a 6-foot-5 junior, returned Thursday and scored 16 points off the bench. The Tomcats bench outscored St. Charles East 34-5.

"It's an energetic crowd here," East Aurora coach Wendell Jeffries said. "The kids love playing here."

-- John Lemon