Glenbard West persists, prevails in OT
The will to win never ceases for Glenbard West's boys basketball team.
So when the Hilltoppers trailed by 11 points heading to the fourth quarter on Monday, they simply found a way to get it done.
Pushing Hinsdale South to overtime, Glenbard West stayed unbeaten by edging the Hornets 64-63 in a West Suburban Conference crossover in Darien.
Hinsdale South's Phil George, who tallied a game-high 30 points, scored the opening bucket of overtime. But after a pair of Michael Mache free throws tied it, Egan Montgomery scored on a driving layup to give the Hilltoppers (5-0) their first lead since midway through the third quarter.
Mache stole an inbounds pass with 8.1 seconds left and made 2 more free throws to build the lead to 64-60. George's 3-pointer at the buzzer accounted for the 64-63 final.
"I think we knew the whole time that we could beat this team, and I think we really came together and tried to get a win," Montgomery said. "As soon as we went to overtime and their big man fouled out, we knew we were going to get a win. There was no doubt in anyone's mind."
"Their big man" was Hinsdale South four-year varsity player Brock Benson, a 6-foot-8 center who fouled out with 3:09 left in regulation after scoring 13 points.
The Hornets (1-4) led 53-47 at that point, but Glenbard West closed the fourth quarter on an 11-5 run. Jeff Levesque's layup with 1:05 left in regulation sent the game to overtime tied 58-58.
Both sides had a chance to end it in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter.
"We needed to turn up the defense and Glenbard West did a nice job chipping away," said Hornets coach Vince Doran. "We had three guys with four fouls and we started playing real tentatively on defense. You have to give Glenbard West a lot of credit. They played a lot smarter than we did down the stretch."
After Glenbard West took a 27-24 lead to the half, Hinsdale South got 3-pointers from Johnnie Jasper, Jerry Stoltz and George as part of a 13-2 run. One of George's six 3-pointers came at the end of the third quarter to put the Hornets ahead 46-35.
Stoltz scored 12 points while Mache led Glenbard West with 20 points including 14 of 16 shooting from the line. Levesque added 10 points.
"We struggled offensively and we didn't shoot the ball real well," said Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder, whose team overcame 1-of-10 third-quarter shooting. "I just don't think we executed very well so we had to keep scrapping until the very end."