Hilltoppers having too much fun to stop
In the midst of a grueling stretch of basketball, Glenbard West dug deep on Monday.
The Hilltoppers' boys team raged out of the gates to stay unbeaten in the Glenbard West Holiday Classic, rolling to a 64-38 second-round victory over Fenton in Glen Ellyn.
A win over Nazareth today - the Hilltoppers' fourth game in five days - would clinch first place in the Green Pool and put them in Friday's title game.
With the Hilltoppers (5-5) leading 8-4 midway through the first quarter, they exploded on a 20-0 run that extended until the middle of the second quarter.
By the time the decisive run ended, Glenbard West held a 28-4 advantage after holding Fenton (3-7) scoreless for eight minutes, 38 seconds.
"Saturday we didn't feel like we played real well, so we wanted to come out tonight and play hard," Hilltoppers guard Kevin Smith said of Saturday's 49-48 first-round win over West Chicago. "They're a good team. The shots just weren't falling for them, and we were hitting everything. So that kept us fired up."
Despite falling into a massive hole, Fenton responded by ripping off 15 straight points in a burst that lasted until the opening minutes of the third quarter.
Trailing 28-15 at the half, the Bison narrowed the gap to 28-19 behind Peter Surma, who scored the team's first 9 points and tallied a team-high 15 for the game.
After that, though, the Hilltoppers pushed the lead back to double digits to stay with a pair of Tyler Warden buckets.
"We have some players that have played a little bit that really acted as if they were intimidated early in the game," said Fenton coach Dennis Cromer. "It wasn't that (the Hilltoppers) did anything out of the ordinary. I would expect that we could do a little better than that."
Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder took advantage of the margin to substitute liberally, allowing 12 of 14 players to score.
Smith led the way with 16 points and Warden pitched in 11 points while Brian Emanuel and Dave McCaffrey had 6 apiece off the bench. Emeka Umeadi scored 11 points for Fenton, which plays West Chicago at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
"It's nice when you can play all of your guys because we go through some stretches where we can't do that," said Hoder, whose team plays Nazareth at 8 p.m. Tuesday. "It takes a whole group. You can't do it with just seven or eight guys."
Nazareth 52, West Chicago 44: That tie score at halftime didn't fool Wildcats coach Kevin Gimre.
He knew his team was in some trouble.
Getting pounded on the boards came back to haunt West Chicago in the second half of a 52-44 loss to Nazareth in second-round boys basketball action from the Glenbard West Holiday Classic Monday in Glen Ellyn.
"It was tied, but even in the first half we did not rebound the ball very well," Gimre said. "They were the aggressors, and we were satisfied watching one guy try to rebound. And then on the other end we were one-and-done."
Eleven first-half offensive rebounds set the tone for the Roadrunners (4-6), who used a 14-4 run coming out of halftime to seize a 36-26 lead.
West Chicago (4-7) made it interesting late by forcing timely turnovers and knocking down a flurry of 3-pointers. Blair Skarin's basket sliced the deficit to 46-41 with 1:24 left but Nazareth hit just enough free throws - 6 of 8 in the final 1:09 - to seal the win and stay unbeaten in the Green Pool.
Ryan Powers scored 13 points to lead all scorers for Nazareth, which plays Glenbard West at 8 p.m. today with a berth in Friday's title game on the line. Eric Krafft added 11 points.
Charles Jacques hit four of West Chicago's nine 3-pointers to lead the team with 12 points off the bench. Tony Quarto, who added three 3s, and Tyler Griffith, who pulled down 11 rebounds, each scored 9 points for the Wildcats.
- Kevin Schmit