West Chicago beats Glenbard South in OT

West Chicago and Glenbard South both have struggled to finish basketball games this season.

So, naturally, they went to overtime Saturday.

The Wildcats took control from there, pulling out a 58-51 victory over Glenbard South in the West Chicago Railway Classic boys basketball shootout.

“It was a huge win for us,” said Wildcats forward Justin Mundt, who scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. “All year we’ve been right there in a lot of games and we just haven’t finished. And to put together a decent fourth quarter and a really good overtime, and actually win, it lifted our spirits.”

The score was tied at the end of the second and third quarters, but Mundt scored 12 points in the fourth quarter as West Chicago (4-12) built a 44-36 lead with 3:05 left on the senior’s putback.

Glenbard South (8-8) scrambled to rally, pulling within 48-47 on Dusko Despot’s three-point play with 1:07 left in regulation. After the Wildcats’ Dylan Hedmark split a pair of free throws, a steal by Glenbard South’s Wes Sanders set up Jon Berrospi for the game-tying basket with 16 seconds left.

A West Chicago miss sent the game to overtime, where the Wildcats scored the first 4 points and outscored the Raiders 9-2 overall.

“It was a crazy game,” said Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke. “We certainly had our opportunities. Down the stretch they did a nice job of executing and I thought we were a little rushed and weren’t able to finish at times. I never really felt like we had any sense of being comfortable, even when we were doing things well.”

Berrospi and Despot each scored 14 points for Glenbard South, which took its final lead of 33-32 early in the fourth quarter on a Matt Jeske basket. Hedmark and Tyler Schoenwolf tallied 7 points apiece for West Chicago.

“We have some experience with overtime games, we went double overtime at Thanksgiving and had another overtime game the next day,” said West Chicago coach Kevin Baldus. “It’s kind of been our challenge to learn what it means to finish games. That’s a big part of seeing us maybe maturing tonight and get to that level where we know how to do it and can carry it over to the next time we play.”