Glenbard South decides not to take easy way out

The easy thing for Glenbard South would have been to go into the consolation bracket and play out the string at the Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York.

The Raiders didn't take the easy way out, however, overcoming a 15-point second-quarter deficit to defeat Lyons Twp. 78-73 in the tournament opener Friday.

"We just wanted to wake up from that Christmas hangover from last night," Raiders senior Louis Erkins said. "We got on our horse in the second quarter and picked it up."

After the Lions (3-5) scored the first basket of the second quarter to take a 28-13 lead, the Raiders (7-1) quickly worked their way back into the game, taking a 30-29 lead on a pair of Erkins free throws with 3:36 to play before halftime.

"Luckily, we were able to bounce back, because it would've been very easy for us to throw in the towel early," Raiders coach Wade Hardtke said. "It's the kind of team that this has been. We've been able to grind out some victories and hopefully we're learning along the way while we're able to grind out some victories."

The key was rebounding, said Lyons Twp. coach Tom Sloan.

"Their kids played hard, but our overall team effort blocking out was the difference in the game," said the former Montini coach. "They went to the offensive glass harder than we went to the defensive glass. The first quarter we did a good job of that, taking all those things away, which led to us getting a lot of easy baskets. The next three quarters we didn't get a lot of easy baskets because of what we weren't doing at the defensive end."

Erkins tied the game at 63 with three minutes left, and the Raiders went on an 8-1 run from there to build a little cushion with 1:03 to play.

Josh Harks led the Raiders with 29 points, including 18 points in the fourth quarter on 10-of-12 free-throw shooting.

"He stepped up huge for us again," Hardtke said of Harks. "He's slowly but surely growing into being a leader ... and taking over the game when we need him to take over the game. He did a nice job down the stretch there of making sure that we were able to get him the ball so that he could get fouled. Then the important part is knocking down the free throws."

Erkins added 19 points and Ralondo Shumate had 15.

"He definitely stepped up, stepped up big, on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively," Hardtke said of Erkins. "I think he's starting to get his legs back under him from the football season, the long run that they had. It's good to see him get going again."

"I felt good out there tonight," Erkins said. "Not shooting jumpers, going inside. They weren't handling my size down low, so I was going down low, driving to the basket."

Glenbard South meets Riverside-Brookfield at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the second round.