Shots don't fall for Glenbard West

Glenbard West wanted to see how low Bolingbrook could go.

The 15th-seeded Hilltoppers succeeded in keeping the score down, but No. 3 Bolingbrook still pulled out a 48-38 victory Tuesday in the Class 4A Glenbard West regional semifinals.

"We tried to make the game kind of choppy in terms of tempo, not let them get rolling at all, try to get them to stand around and shoot some jump shots," Hilltoppers coach Tim Hoder said. "I thought the lack of flow to the game was to our advantage."

"They understood that if they got into an up-and-down game with us it probably wouldn't be close," Bolingbrook coach Robert Brost added. "To their coach's credit he had his kids completely prepared. They did exactly what they needed to do not only to play with us, but they had a shot at winning the game."

The Hilltoppers led 21-19 at halftime, but Bolingbrook scored the first 8 points of the third quarter to take the lead for good.

"We needed to jump on them right there, build on our lead or at least not lose it, and we just weren't able to do that," Hoder said. "A couple of turnovers and a couple of missed shots, that's the difference in the game. That's always a huge part. The third quarter is always a big turning point."

Still the Raiders couldn't pull away, taking a 3-point lead into the final quarter. The final score represented Bolingbrook's biggest lead of the night.

"Our kids battled," Hoder said. "We just didn't score buckets when we really needed to. We scored that big bucket to get us close. We weren't able to score that bucket to get us even or over the hump."

Free throws were a problem for Glenbard West (12-15). The Hilltoppers made just 8 of 16, 3 of 8 in the fourth quarter.

"We knew we had to control the tempo against them. Our kids did everything we asked them to do except make a few more free throws and make a couple of shots," Hoder said.

Bolingbrook advances to Friday's regional final, where it will meet the winner of tonight's Lake Park-Glenbard East game.

"Sometimes we take things for granted, and I think we did a little bit when we came out up here," Brost said. "That's what playoff basketball is. That's a very good team that's very well-coached and we're going to get another very good team that's very well-coached on Friday, so we have to be ready for either Lake Park or Glenbard East."

Ryan Walker scored 11 points and Diamond Taylor added 10 to lead Bolingbrook. Junior Tyler Warden had 14 for Glenbard West, but he scored only 4 in the second half.

"We struggle sometimes to get him the ball in spots where he can score," Hoder said. "That's something we struggled with all year."