Glenbard W. stays in Silver hunt
Cayla Herbst admitted that Friday’s game with York “has been on our minds all week.”
Would Glenbard West overlook Downers Grove North Wednesday? Fat chance.
“We were in the driver’s seat for conference,” Hilltoppers coach Mike Hofland said, “and they knocked us out of it. Luckily we were able to get back in.”
Glenbard West turned the tables on that earlier loss to Downers Grove North, beating the Trojans 51-45 in Downers Grove to forge a three-way tie for the West Suburban Silver lead.
Glenbard West (13-12, 8-3) hosts York on Friday, the winner grabbing at least a share of the Silver title with Oak Park.
“Conference championships aren’t something that comes around our school often,” said Herbst, noting that the last one was in 2006, “so we’re really excited for Friday. At the same time York wasn’t going to matter if we didn’t win tonight.”
Glenbard West jumped out to an early 9-0 lead, Bridget Flanagan scoring twice off Downers Grove North turnovers. The Trojans turned the ball over on their first five possessions, not getting a shot off until almost five minutes in.
Downers Grove North (11-14, 4-7) was playing without leading scorer and point guard Katie Hunzinger, who sprained an ankle in a win over Downers Grove South Saturday. In the same game Lisa Lutz hurt a meniscus.
To the Trojans’ credit they kept within striking distance all game. Alison Schuster and Amelia Echemann each scored 19 points, aggressively attacking the basket from the post.
“I was proud of our kids tonight. They competed,” Downers Grove North coach Leslie Dehn said. “Losing two of your starters when we haven’t been a very deep team all year, the kids that we put in there played really hard and competed. We weathered an early storm and battled.”
When Glenbard West was able to find spots in Downers Grove North’s zone, the Hilltoppers had effective results. Herbst scored 14 points, making 6 of 8 field goals, to go with 6 rebounds. When Herbst went to the bench late in the third quarter 6-foot sophomore Ellen Nighbor made three baskets in succession to push a three-point lead to 33-24.
Those moments were too few and far between, according to Hofland.
“We didn’t do a good job attacking their zone. We gotta do a better job,” Hofland said. “When we were calm and we moved and we looked inside to the post Cayla was successful. We gotta get Cayla the ball. We just have to have patience against the zones and know when to hit our spots.”
Lauren Davis scored 15 points for Glenbard West, going 9 of 12 at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.