Glenbard South does just enough to beat Fenton

Glenbard South's boys basketball team tiptoed the fine line between “just enough” and “too little.”

With Friday's 57-52 Metro Suburban Conference win over Fenton in Glen Ellyn, the Raiders managed to land on the side of “just enough.”

“The bottom line is we survived that one tonight,” said Raiders coach Wade Hardtke. “I don't why we came out without any energy, but that's what happened. We were able to do just enough down the stretch to survive.”

Glenbard South (3-4, 2-1) led for much of the second half until back-to-back baskets by Fenton's Jeremy Shimanek put the Bison (2-7, 0-3) ahead 39-37 early in the fourth quarter.

That seemed to wake up the Raiders, who answered with a 9-0 run to claim a 46-39 advantage. Dusko Despot scored 6 of his 16 points in the run.

That burst, ending with about three and a half minutes left, proved decisive in a low-scoring game.

“That was the spurt that turned the game around, and it happened in a minute,” said Fenton coach Dennis Cromer. “We've had two or three games like that where we're right there, and suddenly we have a moment of letdown and we're out of the game.”

Fenton controlled the first half and built its biggest lead of 14-7 near the end of the first quarter on Kyle Moriarty's putback. Glenbard South took its first lead of 23-20 on Matt Jeske's banked-in 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the first half.

Fenton, despite struggling through 30-percent second-half shooting, narrowed the margin to 2 points twice in the final two minutes of the game. Glenbard South knocked down 8 of 10 free throws down the stretch to seal the win.

Jeske scored a game-high 21 points including four 3-pointers. Dan Montano led Fenton with 17 points, 15 in the second half.

“We didn't have much energy tonight, but the crowd got going and that really helped us out,” Jeske said. “After we went down in the fourth quarter, that kind of woke us up a little bit.”