Glenbard East handles Glenbard West
Zach Miller considered Glenbard East's 72-47 Class 4A regional final victory against Glenbard West on Friday night.
"This is great," the Rams' senior point guard said, Queen's "We Are the Champions" playing in his home gym for emphasis. "There's no better way to end it, I guess. ... To go back-to-back and win a regional championship on our home floor, there's nothing sweeter at this point."
His father/coach also savored the moment.
"I'll tell you, it doesn't get any better than this, to be on your home court," Scott Miller added. "I just feel so blessed to be on your home court with your kid on the floor, his last game. You can't draw it up any better. I'm proud of all our guys. Our seniors really stepped up, and Dante Bailey, you can't say enough for the effort he did."
Third-seeded Glenbard East (24-3) advanced to meet No. 2 Downers Grove South (25-3) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the East Aurora sectional semifinals.
Glenbard East got into the flow of the game late in the first quarter, finishing with a 15-9 lead. Less than two minutes later senior Kevin Priebe's 3-pointer made the score 26-11, and the lead remained in double digits the rest of the way.
"They started really getting into the lane and kicking out for wide-open 3s, because we were helping down," Glenbard West senior Todd Lowery said. "Then once they hit a few shots, got a little lead, the press started really working on us. We couldn't really get the ball across halfcourt, we couldn't really get into anything. That caused us a lot of trouble."
"They got us to play their game and not our own game," added Hilltoppers senior Deshawn Elliott.
It was the second straight regional championship for Glenbard East, which has won five in the last seven years.
"They never get old," Scott Miller said.
Bailey led all scorers with 20 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Zach Miller made four 3-pointers, finishing with 15 points to go with 9 assists. Senior Johnny Hill, nursing a bruised shoulder suffered Tuesday night, scored 12, and Priebe added 11.
The loss ended the Cinderella run of No. 21 seed Glenbard West (11-17).
"It was really exciting. Nobody really expected us to get this far, but we stuck together," said Glenbard West senior Evan Fischl, who along with Elliott and Lowery earned praise from coach Tim Hoder for keeping the team together during tough stretches of the season. "We had a lot of close games during the year, a lot of overtime losses, and that really prepared us for situations like we had a close game, overtime on Monday, a 1-point game Wednesday and it was really exciting to have the opportunity to come out and play Glenbard East tonight."
Junior Michael Mache led Glenbard West in scoring with 12 points.