Boys basketball: Glenbard West turns around early 12-point deficit to top Downers Grove North by 14

Glenbard West quickly fell into a 14-2 hole, but star guard Josh Abushanab wasn’t worried.

“No, I knew to just stay composed, and in these conference games it’s always a dogfight,” Abushanab said. “It’s a battle of runs, so I knew to stay composed, trust my game and do what we got to do.”

Abushanab did exactly that, and so did his teammates. The 6-foot-5 senior scored six straight points and tallied 10 of his game-high 19 points during a 16-2 run, and the host Hilltoppers went on to beat Downers Grove North 66-52 in West Suburban Conference Silver Division action Friday night in Glen Ellyn.

It was a remarkable turnaround by Glenbard West (9-10, 5-2), which took just seven minutes to erase the 12-point deficit. It was part of a larger 33-9 run which lasted into the third quarter.

“You’ve got to weather the storm, stick to your game plan, be disciplined in what your approach is defensively and offensively, and then let the chips fall,” Glenbard West coach Jason Opoko said. “We shared the ball really well, and we took care of it.

“The best thing is when you see the ball go in, you just get confidence, and I think our guys saw that early, and we ran away with it.

“We weathered the early storm and never looked back.”

Abushanab was the first Hilltopper to get in the groove, scoring three times in the paint. The Trojans (11-10, 2-5) adjusted their defense, but to no avail.

“When Josh scores at that high level, defenses are going to double him and they’re going to prioritize him, which means that our other players have to be in a position to score the basketball,” Opoka said. “And they did that, and we trusted each other to do that.”

Indeed, the Hilltoppers just missed placing five players in double figures. Lucas German’s basket tied the game at 16, and Finn Sheely scored inside off a pass from Brady Johnson to give Glenbard West its first lead.

Sheely later added a 3-pointer to put the Hilltoppers ahead to stay at 21-19. German made a steal and passed ahead to Johnson, who found Abushanab for a dunk.

“After I had that scoring stretch, they were kind of changing up their defense, kind of throwing doubles at me, face guards, all kinds of stuff,” said Abushanab, who has offers from North Central and Carthage. “So I was just kind of getting used to the way the game goes.

“It was a great atmosphere, great surroundings, great environment, so it was great to see (my teammates) all score and contribute to the team.”

Johnson, a 6-3 junior forward, continued a memorable week by scoring 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting. That came three days after he tallied a career-high 19 points in a win over Oak Park and 24 hours after receiving a football scholarship offer from Northwestern.

Johnson’s 3-pointer at the 2:47 mark of the third quarter gave the Hilltoppers a 43-29 lead, and the Trojans never got closer than 10 points after that. Shelley finished with 11 points, five boards and four steals, while Jacob Harvanek and Chase Cavan both had nine points.

Marius Razgaitis came off the bench to pace the Trojans with 15 points, while Jacob Vroman had 12 points. Center Colin Doyle finished with eight points, 10 rebounds and three assists.

Razgaitis sank four of Downers North’s 11 3-pointers, but the long-range shooting was streaky. After making their first four treys, the Trojans missed 10 straight.

“I felt like we knew they were going to cool down after they hit those four 3s to start the game,” Johnson said. “Then we just got the team together.

“It was like, just slowly, bit by bit, get it back to a tie, and then once we got a tie, then we went up from there.”

Johnson’s defense on the 6-7 Doyle was particularly impressive. Two of Doyle’s four baskets came in the final three minutes.

“I felt like I just outphysicaled him,” Johnson said. “It was pretty physical, but that’s what I like. Playing football, that’s my nature.”