St. Francis goes through back door for victory
Between the endless barrage of backdoor cuts on offense and the stingy play on defense, St. Francis left little to chance against Glenbard South.
The combination allowed the Spartans' boys basketball team to break out to a big early lead and take home a 61-44 nonconference win in Wheaton.
“Our kids were real active,” said St. Francis coach Shawn Healy. “I thought we did a good job defensively, and offensively I thought we were running our stuff really well. I thought we did a real good job on both ends of the court.”
Easy buckets pushed the Spartans (8-8) to an 18-9 lead after a quarter and a 29-14 lead midway through the second quarter. St. Francis missed only 6 of its 18 first-half shots and while many were layups, Michael Scholl also knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and Eric Stout added a third.
Everything seemed to be rolling for the Spartans, even on defense, where they limited Glenbard South (6-9) to single-digit scoring in each of the first three quarters.
“We were running our motion great and our coach said before the game we could get layups all day, and that's what we were doing,” said Stout, who finished with a team-high 16 points. “We played really well this game, and now we're just looking forward to Friday against Wheaton Academy. This was a big momentum-builder going into that game.”
Despite looking up at an 18-point deficit — and with only 23 points entering the fourth quarter — the Raiders nearly doubled their point total in the final eight minutes. Four times they pulled within 11 points with a chance to come closer, but St. Francis kept extending its advantage.
Eight-of-nine shooting from the line in the fourth quarter helped the Spartans maintain their double-digit lead. Nick Donati and Scholl each scored 15 points.
Dusko Despot scored 10 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter for the Raiders, while Joe Harks added 7 of his 15. The early hole, however, proved to be too deep.
Especially frustrating for the Raiders was their inability to convert on numerous putback chances. They had 21 offensive rebounds, but few turned into points.
“I didn't think we came ready to play,” said Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke. “When you're not making stops defensively and you're not scoring, that makes for a long night.”