Glenbard East takes care of business against Lake Park
Nearly all of Glenbard East's boys basketball players watched Lake Park's stunning upset of Bartlett on Monday.
Two days later, the Rams made sure history didn't repeat itself.
Dominating the final three quarters of play, Glenbard East cruised to a 69-47 win over the Lancers in Wednesday's Class 4A Glenbard West regional semifinals in Glen Ellyn.
The sixth-seeded Rams (20-6) vie for their fourth regional title in five years when they face No. 3 Bolingbrook in Friday's regional title game.
"Monday we saw them and realized it's one and done," said Rams junior Jack Merrithey. "You've got to come to play every night, and that's what we did. I think it helped us seeing them in person."
Lake Park (5-23), the Oswego East sectional's No. 22 seed, shocked the field with its 68-62 win over Bartlett. The Lancers hung with Glenbard East as well until the Rams hit them with a devastating run near the end of the first quarter.
The Lancers pulled within 13-12 on Matt Drufke's basket, but Glenbard East responded with a 12-0 run that featured two of Merrithey's four first-half 3-pointers. Merrithey scored all 16 of his game-high points in the first half and Paul Sanders added 10 of his 14 in the post as the Rams built a 35-18 lead at the break.
"They're a good team, but we did everything we could to throw the game away in the first half," said Lake Park interim coach Tom Bergen. "We had 9 turnovers in the first quarter. It's tough. We kind of made it easy for them. And in the second half they just kept us buried."
After Merrithey and Sanders dominated the first half, Johnny Hill and Lee Skinner combined for the Rams' first 7 points of the third quarter. By the start of the fourth quarter, the lead mushroomed to 52-29 as the benches closed out the game's final minutes.
Zach Miller scored 11 points and dished 5 assists for the Rams. Freshman Dominique Spencer paced Lake Park with 9 points.
"Anything can happen in the playoffs, and they took our discussion seriously about preparing for this team," said Rams coach Scott Miller. "I thought we were real focused early and our execution was pretty good, too."
Glenbard East's focus shifts to Bolingbrook (19-6) and its talented Division I combo of Wisconsin-bound Diamond Taylor and Wisconsin-Green Bay recruit Troy Snyder. It's sure to be a different game than Wednesday night's.
"They're a very athletic, very talented team," Miller said. "We're definitely going to have to play good defense and move the basketball around."
BOX SCORE
CLASS 4A GLENBARD WEST REGIONAL
glenbard east 69, lake park 47
Lake Park - Baylis 2 0-0 5, Drufke 3 2-2 8, Antioho 1 1-2 3, Spencer 2 5-7 9, Johnson 2 1-1 5, Pietanza 0 0-0 0, Powers 0 0-0 0, Proctor 0 0-2 0, Sotira 1 0-0 3, Hansen 1 0-0 2, Nawrot 0 0-2 0, Whetsel 1 0-1 2, Monaco 3 0-0 7, Phelan 1 0-0 3, Alexopolous 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 9-17 47.
Glenbard East - Miller 5 0-0 11, Merrithey 6 0-0 16, Sanders 7 0-2 14, Hill 3 1-2 7, Skinner 3 0-0 6, Kernats 0 0-0 0, Martin 1 1-2 3, Coleman 4 0-3 8, Havenga 0 0-0 0, Little 0 0-0 0, Lahey 0 0-0 0, Parks 1 0-0 2, Borosak 0 0-0 0, Kjeldsen 0 0-0 0, Koudi 1 0-0 2. Totals 31 2-9 69.
Lake Park 12 6 11 18 -47
Glenbard East 17 18 17 17 -69
3-point baskets: LP: Baylis, Sotira, Monaco, Phelan. GE: Merrithey 4, Miller. Fouled out: GE: Hill.