Glenbard East dodges Naperville Central
Luckily for Glenbard East, Johnny Hill still had one good arm.
The Illinois State-bound senior overcame a shoulder injury to help the Rams stave off upset-minded Naperville Central. Behind Hill’s career-high 34 points Glenbard East held on for a 69-64 win in Tuesday’s Class 4A Glenbard East regional semifinals.
The third-seeded Rams (23-3) advance to Friday’s final to face Wednesday’s winner between Waubonsie Valley and Glenbard West.
Trailing most of the game, 19th-seeded Naperville Central (13-15) took a 62-61 lead on a pair of Nick Czarnowski free throws with 49.6 seconds left. Hill, struggling with his left shoulder since a hard fall early in the second quarter, answered with a huge three-point play.
The free throw put the Rams ahead 64-62 and, after a missed Redhawks 3-pointer, Glenbard East hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final 21 seconds to seal the win.
“It was bothering me a little bit but, you know, it was just a bruise,” said Hill, who scored 15 points in the first quarter before the injury and scored 11 in the fourth quarter. “So I’m just trying to play through it and my teammates did a real good job of building me up and giving me confidence to go back out there.”
Glenbard East built a 26-16 second-quarter lead, but Naperville Central held the Rams scoreless for the next six minutes and rallied to tie it on Czarnowski’s free throws. The Rams again extended their lead to 47-37 on Hill’s three-point play midway through the third quarter.
The Redhawks still didn’t fade. Ian Lewandowski tied it at 58-58 apiece with 2:09 left when he missed a free throw but grabbed the rebound and put it back.
“We pushed hard,” said Redhawks senior David Niggins, who scored a team-high 25 points. “When they started to get on those runs, we stopped them. We played tough ‘D,’ got the ball back, scored a couple times. We kept chipping away at it.”
Zach Miller scored 7 of his 14 points in the third quarter for the Rams. Tyree York added 11 points.
“I thought we had them on the ropes in the first half, thought we had them on the ropes in the second half,” said Rams coach Scott Miller. “As you go through this you’ve got to dodge one every now and then, and we definitely dodged one.”
Bryce Kirk hit four 3-pointers while scoring 12 points for Naperville Central. Czarnowski had 10 points off the bench.
“I can’t say enough about what these kids have accomplished,” said Redhawks coach Pete Kramer. “They never quit.”