Glenbard South holds off Fenton
The boys basketball teams that took to the court Tuesday night at Glenbard South have taken different paths this season, but both fought equally hard for the prize available.
The host Raiders defeated Fenton 64-53 to extend their winning streak to three heading into the final five games of the regular season.
“We want to play our best basketball towards the end of the season. We face five teams with winning records and a couple are ranked in the local area,” said Raiders senior Dusko Despot, who led all scorers with 18 and had 8 rebounds.
And the battle with the Bison (2-21, 1-8 Metro Suburban Conference) should help prepare Glenbard South (11-9, 7) for the coming weeks. The Raiders led 21-13 after the first quarter and 37-26 at halftime and appeared to have a good grip on the game.
Glenbard South led by 11 with just less than three minutes left in the third quarter, but the Bison closed the period on an 11-0 run to tie the game at 44.
Crucial to Fenton’s effort during the third was senior guard Colin Wallace, who led Bison scorers with 16. Eleven of those points came during the third quarter, and the team took good advantage of the 6 Glenbard South turnovers during that span.
A steal turned into a pass to Wallace for a layup that brought the Bison to within 5. About 20 seconds later Jeremy Shimanek grabbed the ball and passed to Wallace. Wallace missed his shot but was fouled and sank both free throws to pull his team to within 3.
With just 17 seconds left Herman DeGuia sank a 3-point basket to tie the game at 44.
“It’s been a brutal season and the team hasn’t quit. I was happy with our performance. We just ran out of gas in the fourth,” said Bison coach Dennis Cromer.
If there was a highlight, Wallace’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer from just beyond midcourt to end the first half was it.
“It’s the third time (this season) that Colin has hit a shot like that at half-court or behind it,” Cromer said.
The Fenton coach also praised 6-foot 5-inch sophomore Greg Wagner, who in his first varsity contest scored 11 first-half points and shot 4 of 4 in the first quarter. Shimanek also had 11 points.
With the contest tied at 49 with just less than 5:30 left in the game, Glenbard South finished on a 15-4 run to wrap things up. The Raiders were helped by Despot’s 7 points during the final quarter and 5 points each coming from Jon Berrospi and Matt Jeske. Jeske finished with 13 for the game.
“We picked up the pressure a little in the fourth quarter and got them in a hurry again,” said Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke. “We came up big when we needed to and had just enough to finish out on offense and defense.”