Glenbard West keeps Classic trophy at home
Basketball favors the tall. Glenbard West proved it yet again, with landmark results, in the championship game of the 10th annual Glenbard West Holiday Classic.
Boasting twins Matthew and Michael Mache, Pat Mazza and Vernon Harris, all 6-foot-6 and up, the intimidating hosts outlasted Wheaton Academy’s game ensemble of perimeter shooters to beat the two-time defending tourney champs 67-48 on Friday.
Glenbard West (10-0) began the fourth quarter on a 15-3 run to surpass not only the Warriors but also Glenbard West’s 1972-73 squad that began its season 9-0.
“Ferg (Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson) does a great job with those kids and they execute the heck out of their offense. You have to play very well to beat them, so it does mean a lot,” Hilltoppers coach Tim Hoder said after the Hilltoppers’ fifth tourney title and first since 2007.
The plot was clear: Hilltoppers bigs versus Warriors shooters Drew Sandberg, Lars Olson, Collin Roy, Gabe Partain and Cameron Harvey, the Eastern Illinois recruit with floor game.
“We just tried to spread the floor and then we got some penetration from the guards and they just looked inside and spread the ball to Michael and Matthew and Vernon and myself,” said Mazza, all-tourney along with Michael Mache and Harvey. Mazza and Harris each scored 11 points.
“We wanted to make them shoot, and I think we kind of shied away from that,” said Harvey, who scored 15 points, behind Roy’s 16 for Wheaton Academy (8-6).
Michael Mache rolled to a game-high 25 points, but Wheaton Academy trailed by no more than 7 through three quarters, leading 19-18 on a Roy 3 in the second.
Sandberg also started fast, and zone defenses limited Glenbard West’s flow, also hampered by point guard Jeff Levesque’s foul trouble.
After a 41-38 edge entering the fourth quarter, Harris, Cory Davis, Egan Montgomery and Mazza all scored inside for a 50-40 lead.
Back in play, Levesque zipped a pass to Michael Mache for a power move, then a 35-foot rope to Mache for a 56-41 lead with 3:47 left.
“Jeff really found me and Vernon, hit me down on the baseline,” Michael Mache said. “Mazza had some too. The heights are just too much for them, especially finishing down in the deep fourth quarter.”
Wheaton Academy made 7 of 15 shots in the first quarter but 3 of 12 in the fourth. That wasn’t going to work despite what Ferguson called “their best effort.”
“We fought hard,” Olson said, “but we just couldn’t last in the fourth quarter and they outplayed us in the fourth, so credit to them.”