Glenbard South finds help on bench
Colleen O’Brien, Ali McEwen and Hannah Kelly don’t usually get a lot of playing time, but they had a big impact on Monday’s 34-25 victory against Timothy Christian.
“That was great to see,” Raiders coach Julie Fonda said. “Colleen did a nice job. She brought some great intensity. It was a great spark. Colleen did a really nice job. Hannah hit a really nice shot 15-footer. So it was nice to see some other people step up.”
The game was tied at 22 in the fourth quarter when Kelly scored to give the Raiders a lead they kept to remain undefeated in the Metro Suburban Conference. O’Brien followed with a basket at the 5:24 mark, then assisted on baskets by Sarah Engelhardt and Nevena Markovic as the Raiders began to pull away.
“It was good. It was nice to finally get to show what I’ve got,” O’Brien said.
The game originally was scheduled to be played Feb. 1 at Timothy Christian, but Mother Nature had other ideas, and it was moved to Glen Ellyn because Timothy Christian is hosting a Class 2A regional this week. The Trojans will play in the regional Wednesday.
Because of the weather the Raiders hadn’t played since Jan. 27.
“It’s not an excuse, but it was obvious that our shots were a little off and we were a little winded,” Fonda said. “We’ve got stuff to work on.”
“We struggled with the week off, but I think we did well,” O’Brien added. “We pulled it out at the end. That’s all that matters.”
Timothy Christian tried to change the pace of the game.
“We tried to slow them down as much as we could,” Trojans coach Ryan DeKoekkoek said. “They have (6-foot-4 center Nevena Markovic) over there and she’s a firepower beyond belief, so we tried to do as much as we could in the zone to slow her down.
“They tend to look to her predominantly. We wanted to let some other players shoot the ball. The second quarter was looking good, the third quarter was looking good, the fourth quarter, ehhh, not so much.”
Both teams had trouble getting shots to fall, each making just 29 percent of their shots.
“Their defense was very good,” Fonda said of the Trojans. “It was smothering. You’ve got to give them credit that they held us to 34 and we’re a 50-point team. They played a great defensive team.”
Jordyn Platt led Timothy (15-10, 8-4) in scoring with 8 points, and the Trojans start the postseason having placed second in the conference and with the knowledge they gave the first-place team a battle.
“It’s something for us to build on, because we’ve got regionals on Wednesday, gives the girls a little confidence, builds their self-esteem a little bit,” DeKoekkoek said.
The Raiders (21-3, 10-0), having clinched the league title last week, will try to complete their MSC schedule with a perfect record in games at Elmwood Park on Wednesday and Riverside-Brookfield on Friday before starting the Class 3A playoffs next week.