Girls basketball: Yeager’s layup lifts Glenbard West past York

Glenbard West junior forward Makenna Yeager was not going to be denied.

With her team down a point and the clock melting down, Yeager received a pass from point guard Lauren Escalante about 20 feet from the basket and barreled into the lane.

“Julia (Benjamin) inbounded it to Lauren and she passed it to me,” Yeager said. “I was like, ‘I have to take it to the basket. We don’t have much time left, just take it to the basket, draw that foul or get a layup.’”

The 6-foot Yeager did take it to the basket and scored on a layup with 4 seconds remaining to give the host Hilltoppers a thrilling 50-49 West Suburban Silver Conference victory over York on Monday night.

It was the first career game-winner for Yeager, who paced Glenbard West (21-5, 8-2) with 15 points, three more than Benjamin, a junior guard.

“It was very exciting and I’m proud of our kids,” Glenbard West coach Kristi Faulkner said. “They stayed with it and Makenna made a heck of a shot.”

Yeager’s shot would not have been necessary had York (12-10, 5-3) not made an equally sweet play on the previous possession. After a timeout with 17.9 seconds left, Hannah Meyers inbounded the ball from the left sideline to fellow senior Stella Kohl, who drove the lane and scored with 15 seconds left to put the Dukes ahead 49-48.

“We’ve played together for so long that I have so much trust in her,” Meyers said of Kohl, who had made one basket prior to that shot. “So throwing it in to her, I knew that she was going to get that in.”

The Hilltoppers got the ball into the front court and called their last timeout with 9.4 ticks left.

Did Meyers, who had tallied a game-high 17 points, including a trip of 3-pointers, think the lead would hold?

“Obviously, it wasn’t enough,” Meyers said. “But going into the timeout, I did think it was going to be enough.”

But Faulkner had a play ready.

“Our coach just drew up a great play and we were ready,” Yeager said. “We ran through it during practice so many times that we were just ready for that moment in time, for a last-second shot like that.

“We just came together as a team, huddled up and finished it out.”

Faulkner wanted the ball in the hands of Escalante, who had been tough as nails on both ends of the court, racking up six points, a game-high 14 rebounds, and four assists. But there were multiple options.

“Lauren tacked one way and Makenna came around the back side and you could see it in her eyes, she was going to take it no matter what,” Faulkner said. “She had a lot of courage to take that last shot, and she finished.”

Which didn’t surprise Faulkner, who has watched Yeager’s steady improvement. Earlier in the season, Yeager hit a deep 3-pointer to send a game against Glenbrook South to overtime. The Hilltoppers eventually lost that game, but it showed their determination.

“She’s put in a lot of time and it’s fun to see,” Faulkner said. “She’s putting in a lot of time in film and trying to get her shots up.

“There’s just that mentality of always getting better, always learning. She’s super coachable and she’s very competitive, so she’s a lot of fun to coach.”

So, too, is Escalante, who is generously listed as 5-6. She had six offensive rebounds, two fewer than York had as a team, and calmed the Hilltoppers after they committed 11 turnovers in the first half.

“You talk about competitive spirit,” Faulkner said. “Lauren is really one of our engines that makes us go.

“Last game she had 10 rebounds. We talk about rebounding as being heart, and she epitomizes that.”

The Dukes showed a lot of heart in a game that was tight throughout. A Meyers 3-pointer gave York its largest lead, 14-11, in the second quarter, and Anna Filosa tallied six of her 15 points during a fourth-quarter rally from a five-point deficit.

“I think the first half we definitely had a lot of shots that just didn’t fall,” Meyers said. “We played with a lot of energy and even with some foul trouble, the bench coming in did great. Overall, I think it was a really good game.”

The Hilltoppers, who travel to Elmhurst to play the Dukes again next Tuesday, weren’t surprised by that.

“We knew they were a great team, so we just had to come out with our heart and we knew it was going to be down to the end,” Yeager said. “We knew it was going to be a battle of who wanted it more and who had the best energy out there because the teams were equally competitive.

“It’s just a huge win.”