Glenbard South stops Glenbard West

The lineups will be very different in a couple of weeks, but Tuesday's 54-42 Glenbard South victory against Glenbard West meant plenty to both teams, and not just because of it's a cross-town rivalry or part of the District 87 Tournament.

"We've got to take everything we can out of every game," said Raiders coach Wade Hardtke, who was without several of his top guards, including injured football quarterback Trace Wanless. "We've got guys playing tonight with no varsity minutes, we've got guys with limited varsity minutes, and we're learning on the fly. We've got to take something out of every game we play right now. Learning-wise, we're a little bit behind, so we've got to play catchup."

"There's a lot we take out of it," added Hilltoppers coach Tim Hoder, who saw improvement in his team from Monday's loss to Glenbard North. "Offensively, we need to execute shot selection. Defensively, our kids played much better, much harder.

"I thought tonight was the level of intensity a varsity game has in our league. It's obviously a rivalry game with Glenbard South, so our kids got to experience that, and we have a lot of young kids. That's a real positive for us."

Each team gave big minutes to sophomores. In the Raiders' case Mitchell Gasbarro and Jonathon Berrospi came of the bench to take ballhanlding duties, with Berrospi contributing 8 points.

"They're getting baptized by fire," Hardtke said of the two sophomores' cameo appearance with the varsity. "After talking with them after (Monday) night's game, they said, 'Wow, that's a lot faster than freshman basketball,' and that's all they've played so far is freshman basketball. It's a big jump for them."

The sophomores often spelled Mike Rovansek at guard because Rovansek had only two basketball practices coming off a concussion suffered in the Raiders' quarterfinal football loss. Rovansek led the Raiders (1-1) with 14 points.

"Rovansek came up huge," Hardtke said. "He didn't get a whole lot of break (after football). ... He's nowhere near basketball shape, and we rode him every minute we could tonight."

With seven players getting ready for Saturday's state championship football game, including returning leading scorer/quarterback Tyler Warden, Glenbard West (0-2) started three sophomores and a junior, with sophomore Michael Mache leading the Hilltoppers with 16 points and 8 rebounds.

"We really are both in the same boat," Hoder said. "We're young. We know that. We have to get better because those kids are going to play for us even when we get everything back. So we've got to get better."

The Raiders took a 17-6 lead in the second period and kept the lead in double digits into the fourth quarter. Mache's basket with 3:40 left trimmed the margin to 7 points, but the Raiders scored the next 7 points to rebuild the lead.