Glenbard West defeats rival Glenbard South
Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder had to admit he’s “pretty excited” about his boys basketball team this season.
It was easy to see why Tuesday night.
A big first half helped the host Hilltoppers defeat cross-town rival Glenbard South 73-56 at the District 87 tournament in Glen Ellyn. The Hilltoppers meet Glenbard East at 7:30 p.m. today for the championship of the round-robin tournament.
“We’re still building and trying to get better, so every win’s a nice win for us,” Hoder said. “Our kids are playing with a ton of energy right now, and they’re playing with confidence.”
The Hilltoppers raced to a 15-4 lead after one quarter. A Justin Taylor 3-pointer made the score 32-11 with 2:31 to go in the second quarter to help the Hilltoppers take a 36-12 halftime lead, their biggest of the game.
Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke juggled his lineup at halftime, and the Raiders (0-2) started cutting into the lead. The Hilltoppers, however, responded when they had to never letting the lead drop below 16 points.
“A lot of the bench guys stepped up,” Hardtke said. “They were the ones who carried us there in the second half. We settled in finally and executed, both on the offensive and the defensive end.”
Michael Mache led Glenbard West (2-0) with 26 points and added 5 rebounds, and twin brother Matthew scored 13 as 18 Hilltoppers saw playing time.
“They’re athletic and got out and ran and for whatever reason we never adjusted, so they got a lot of layups,” Hardtke said.
Point guard Jeff Levesque scored just 2 points, but he contributed 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals in limited minutes.
“We didn’t have Jeff last year until Christmas (due to injury),” Hoder said. “You can see how important he is to us. It doesn’t show up on the scoresheet. He handles pressure, he finds open people to create easy baskets for us. He’s really, really important to us. Any success we have is going to happen with Jeff out there, because he does so much.”
Junior Tim Marshall and senior Dusko Despot scored 8 points to lead the Raiders, who had 13 players see playing time.