Boys basketball: Glenbard East gets balanced offensive effort to down Palatine in Tosh Classic quarterfinals
Glenbard East senior forward Jacob Marynowski was very selective with his jersey number.
The 6-foot-3 Marynowski dons jersey number 15 — the same digits as Denver Nuggets superstar center Nikola Jokic.
“A lot of people say I look like Jokic, so yeah, I picked it for a reason,” Marynowski said, smiling.
Nearly midway through his final season, Marynowski’s game is another aspect that’s looking more like Jokic.
With two starters — Sam Walton and Keenan House — fouling out in the fourth quarter, Marynowski stepped up with a strong effort on both ends of the court in the quarterfinals of the Jack Tosh Holiday Classic against Palatine on Monday afternoon. Marynowski finished with 11 points and added eight rebounds in Glenbard East’s 59-56 victory over Palatine.
The Rams (11-1) had four players in double figures, highlighted by Danny Snyder’s 15 points, five rebounds and six assists. Snyder had a vital play to make it a two-possession game, scoring on a floater in the lane to pad the Rams lead to 58-54. Walton had 12 points, Michael Nee also had 12 and hit three 3-pointers.
“It’s a good win,” Glenbard East coach Eric Kelly said. “That’s a team ranked in the top 25. Obviously, they have one of the better kids in the area in Tony Balanganayi. He’s a load. Our goal is to get downstate and in order to do that, you have to play tough games against tough teams like this and survive it and we did. We had contributions from a lot of players.”
The Pirates (11-2) mounted an impressive second-half comeback, partly due to Walton and Keenan House both picking up their fourth fouls midway through the third quarter. Palatine missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer with two seconds left.
Balanganayi had another big game, scoring a game-high 22 points to go with 10 rebounds. The 6-4 Balanganayi, an Illinois football recruit, scored on a putback with 14 seconds left to cut the deficit to two points. In the first half, Balanganayi, who had 26 points and 12 boards in Saturday’s win over Wheaton North, added to his stellar career by topping the 1,000-point mark in the first half. Robbie Wilcox poured in 12 points on 4-for-8 shooting from beyond the arc and Brady May chipped in with 10 points for the Pirates.
“It was a tough game, but a good high school basketball game,” Palatine coach Eric Millstone said. “You have to give a lot of credit to Glenbard East for all the weapons they have. I thought we did a pretty good job of closing out on their shooters initially. We got into this tournament to play big and meaningful games … Tony has done everything the right way for three years and done it with an admirable humility. He’s so down to earth and humble.”
A second-year starter, Marynowski said he understand the gravity of the moment in the second half, but admitted battling with Balanganayi was a tough assignment, especially with Walton playing limited minutes in the second half.
“Sammy will sometimes get in foul trouble, but normally it will depend on me, so I knew I had to step up,” Marynowski said. “I had to seal them every time I could, rebound and put my body on the line. (Tony) is pretty physical, so we knew he would be able to go to the line a lot and would bump you. We just had to wall up and tried not to foul him.”
In the third quarter, Marynowski had a stellar performance. He opened the quarter with a basket, added another two-pointer to pad Glenbard East’s lead to 33-29 and added an old-fashioned three-point to push the advantage to 36-31.
Moving to the perimeter, Marynowski drilled a 3-pointer for a 43-37 edge with 3:08 remaining in the third quarter. Marynowski said he added another dimension to his game by extending his range in the offseason after making just one 3-pointer last season.
“Our coaches really emphasized to me to step up my game and to shoot the three if I’m open or even be confident if I’m contested,” Marynowski said.
Snyder saved the day with his play in the fourth quarter, draining an early three-pointer and scoring on his late floater and then picking up a key defensive rebound with 59 ticks left.
“With the guys fouling out, we knew we had to step up,” Snyder said. “We had guys from the bench step up and we had to be aggressive. Jacob is one of the harder workers I’ve known. He’s a great player and people should definitely start to look at him.”