Boys basketball: R-B overcomes slow start to beat Glenbard South

To say Riverside-Brookfield‘s shooting was ice cold in the early going against host Glenbard South on Thursday night would be an understatement.

The Bulldogs missed their first 15 shots and 20 of their first 21. They didn’t record a basket until senior guard Liam Enright sank a pullup jumper at the 7:28 mark of the second quarter.

“I knew it was bad,” Riverside-Brookfield coach Mike Reingruber said. “I didn’t realize it was that bad.

“But we can’t let the ball going through dictate our energy and I felt like we did that a good chunk of the first half. But we closed out the half semi-strong and just carried it over to the second half.”

And the Bulldogs apparently weren’t worried by the slow start.

“We started bad, but none of us let it get to our head,” R-B sophomore guard Noah VanTholen said. “We knew that was probably our worst half of basketball all season, but we got it together and we came together as a team, had a great second half.”

Star senior guard Cameron Mercer scored 21 of his game-high 24 points in the second half, while VanTholen added nine of his 12 points as the visiting Bulldogs rallied for a 53-46 Upstate Eight East victory in Glen Ellyn.

The win was the eighth straight for the Bulldogs (16-5, 7-1), who trailed 17-5 before VanTholen split a pair of free throws which turned out to be the start of a 9-1 run which he capped with the first of his two dunks.

The Raiders (15-7, 4-3) led 20-15 at halftime, but Mercer scored the first seven points of the third quarter as the tide started to turn.

The Bulldogs utilized a full-court press that disrupted the Raiders’ rhythm. VanTholen had five steals, while senior forward Colin Cimino had three steals and Mercer, Enright and senior forward Benjamin Biskupic all had two each.

“I thought their press was OK,” Glenbard South coach Jason Mead said. “It wasn’t like they were swarming everything.

“We just threw the ball to them. We turned it over way too many times to beat a good team.”

Amir Jackson had 14 points and seven rebounds for the Raiders, while Jonathan Hadley added 11 points and P.J. Lehr 10 points, including a 3-pointer that tied the game at 43 with 4:33 to go in the fourth quarter.

But VanTholen sank two free throws to give the Bulldogs the lead for good, then made a steal and a slam dunk as the visitors went on a clinching 9-0 run.

“Noah’s play was amazing,” Mercer said. “When a sophomore comes out and he gives us energy with two dunks, he brings the team’s morale up.”

VanTholen refused to take all the credit, though.

“We all kind of made plays down the stretch,” VanTholen said. “We all just wanted to make it our job to play team defense, not just personal defense. We all want to make plays together so we can come out with a win.”

Reingruber, whose team won the first meeting with the Raiders 63-46 on Dec. 12, was relieved.

“Glenbard South is a good team,” Reingruber said. “They’ve gotten better and better as the year has gone on and we have a lot of respect for them.

“We just weathered that storm. We certainly did not bring our ‘A’ game to start, but I’m happy to weather the storm and walk out of here with a win.”