Hinsdale South buzzes Glenbard East

Brock Benson provided the inside, Phil George the outside.

Combined, the Hinsdale South duo proved to be unstoppable.

On the backs of two of their senior leaders, the Hornets’ boys basketball team surged to a 71-57 win over Glenbard East in the final game at Saturday’s Downers Grove North Winter Classic.

Six-foot-eight Benson scored a career-high 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while George nailed three 3-pointers and tallied 23 points. Throw in 10 points from Jerry Stoltz and the trio outscored Glenbard East (8-7) by 2 points.

“They’re a good team, but we just had to get the ball to me and Phil and just run our offense from there,” said Benson, who made all 12 of his shots from the field. “It really helps to have someone be able to knock down a shot when I kick it out when I get double-teamed.”

Hinsdale South (9-7) made its move in the final five minutes of the first half with a 10-2 run that turned a 1-point deficit into a 33-26 halftime lead. George’s three-point play made it 52-36 late in the third quarter before 7 straight points from the Rams sliced the margin to 52-43 in the opening minute of the fourth quarter on Dante Bailey’s bucket.

Hinsdale South, though, never let the Rams get closer than 10 points away the rest of the game.

“It’s the same thing with us, defensively we’ve got to get some things figured out,” said Glenbard East coach Scott Miller. “The chemistry’s not good, but we’ll just keep working at it and we’ll get better.”

Bailey scored 12 of his team-high 18 points in the first half, while Yashua Trent added 8 of his 11 points in the fourth quarter. Bolstered by Benson’s performance, Hinsdale South made 64 percent of its shots from the field.

“Our emphasis was to get the ball inside tonight, and I thought Brock did a great job,” said Hinsdale South coach Vince Doran. “It just seems like every time he catches he seems to get a great look and finish, or he gets to the free-throw line. Tonight I thought he was great out there.”