Glenbard South gets back to even
The long road back to a .500 record is finally over for Glenbard South's boys basketball team.
Like everything else this season, the Raiders couldn't find a way to make it easy on themselves.
A 21-point second-half lead dwindled, but Glenbard South persevered for Tuesday's 72-60 Metro Suburban West victory over Wheaton Academy in Glen Ellyn.
The Raiders' sixth straight win has them even on the season at 10-10 and 5-2 in the MSC West. It's the first time they've been .500 since starting the season 1-1.
"We started pushing the ball up the court and getting it inside, and finishing inside," said Raiders junior guard Povilas Riauba. "Then in the second half we started rushing shots, taking bad shots. That's what got to us in the second half. Our defense was awful in the second half."
Glenbard South stormed to a 20-6 lead after a quarter and forced 15 of Wheaton Academy's 22 turnovers in the first half while building a 31-14 halftime advantage. The Raiders then scored on consecutive possessions to start the second half to take their largest lead.
Even though the Warriors (4-17, 1-6) eventually settled in and held their ground the rest of the game, it was too late and too much of a deficit to recover. The closest they came was 10 points away, which they did twice midway through the fourth quarter.
"For whatever reason we don't start fighting until we get down," said Wheaton Academy coach Pete Froedden. "We've got to change it. We're good enough to compete, we just didn't come out ready to fight."
Eight players scored in a balanced effort for the Raiders, who piled up nearly half their points from the line on 32-of-43 free-throw shooting. Riauba paced the team with 14 points while Billy Bair scored 13 points and Charlie Bair added 10 points.
Jacob Lindstedt helped spearhead Wheaton Academy's second-half burst, scoring 11 of his game-high 15 points. Bryce Sandberg made three 3-pointers while scoring 13 points and Ty Collins came off the bench to tally 12 points.
"We had a great start," said Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke. "The first half we executed and got after it on the defensive end. Unfortunately, in the second half we got lazy defensively. And they weren't going to lay down for us."
Follow Kevin on Twitter @kevin_schmit