Hilltoppers hold their ground

Having squared off twice already against Addison Trail this season, Glenbard West's boys basketball team knew exactly where its advantage lay.

The Hilltoppers went right to work exploiting their superior size in the post, dominating on the glass early and often in Tuesday's 62-49 victory in Glen Ellyn.

Glenbard West (13-9) jumped out to a 16-5 lead after one quarter of the West Suburban Conference crossover game, fueled strongly by its performance on the boards. The Hilltoppers outrebounded Addison Trail 12-3 in the first quarter and 17-6 in the first half.

"It's always important to get off to an early start. Coach (Tim Hoder) gives us things we need to work on in the game and things we need to get after and take advantage of, and our size was our advantage tonight," center John Shurna said. "We wanted to take full advantage of that, and when we've got Chris Watt banging down low and myself, and Shane Bryant and Bryant Venson hitting 3s, it opens everything up."

The Blazers (3-17) countered their disadvantage underneath the basket by sinking their shots in the second quarter, going 7 of 11 from the floor and cutting the Hilltoppers lead to just 6 points at halftime.

Addison Trail's energy and willingness to claw back surprised no one on the Hilltoppers sideline.

"Addison Trail is a team that is going to fight to the end, and you've got to give them credit," Shurna said. "They're going to keep battling with you till the clock hits 00:00, so we knew we had to keep it going."

Shurna's follow-up dunk with 2:00 remaining in the third quarter gave Glenbard West a 43-32 lead, part of the 6-8 senior's 11 third-quarter points.

"I felt good, but I wasn't overly confident," Hoder said of the 11-point lead. "I didn't think we were done. I knew they were going to keep playing all the way through, so I needed to feel a little bit more than 11 points to be real confident."

Sure enough, the Blazers got within 4 points of Glenbard West in the fourth quarter before eventually running out of gas.

"I told our guys, 'Think of all the opportunities we had. We had four or five contested layups that we could have finished that would have made a 6-point game a four-point game,' " Addison Trail coach Brendan Lyons said. "When push came to shove, a lot of their guys stepped up and made plays they had to do, and we didn't."