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Glenbard South turns the tables on Illiana Christian

Glenbard South jumped all over Illiana Christian and maintained a comfortable lead from start to finish.

One week after falling to Timothy Christian in overtime, despite an 11-0 run to start the game, the Raiders built on their first-quarter lead and never relinquished it, culminating in a 74-57 Metro Suburban Conference victory against the Vikings on Friday in Glen Ellyn.

“The last two games, I thought we’ve come out well,” Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke said. “We talk about coming out and setting the tone in the first three minutes, and I thought we did a nice job of that tonight.”

Chaun Rickette led the Raiders with a game-high 23 points, while junior forward Tyler Scott tallied a game-high five 3-pointers as 15 of his 17 points came from beyond the arc.

“I knew I had to get back into it somehow, so I kept looking for the ball and looking for openings,” Scott said. “They were playing a 3-2 zone and I knew I had to keep looking for my spot.”

The Raiders, playing in their first home game of the season, were down 3-0 to start after Illiana Christian’s Matthew Zandstra connected on a 3-point attempt, but senior John Marks hit back-to-back baseline jumpers to put Glenbard South up 4-3 and the Raiders led the rest of the game.

Rickette gave the Raiders their biggest lead of the half when he took a pass from the other end of the court and finished with a layup on the fast break, making the score 44-28 at halftime.

Rickette’s putback off his own miss gave the Raiders a 46-28 lead to start the third quarter, but the Vikings trimmed the lead down to single digits thanks to a 20-12 scoring advantage.

Illiana Christian’s Caleb Jonkman and Brandon Galambos each scored a basket inside in the final 1:30 of the third quarter to cut the Raiders lead to 56-48 heading into the final eight minutes.

However, the Vikings were held to just two field goals in the fourth quarter, including one by Galambos as time expired.

“There was one little spell where we looked a little shaky and then we got back on the gas pedal and were able to close it out,” Hardtke said.

Scott connected on his fifth 3-pointer of the night with 7:21 left, and Rickette all but put the game away at the 3:15 mark with a pair of free throws that came as the result of an intentional foul on Illiana Christian.

“As far as scheme basketball went, tonight was our best effort,” Hardtke said. “We haven’t been necessarily sharing the ball well. But I thought tonight, especially early on, we did that. We beat our assist average in the first four minutes of the game.”

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