Pierce, Glenbard West top Glenbard South

Glenbard West is missing a handful of players due to the football team's run to the Class 7A title game.

Glenbard South, like Glenbard North a day earlier, probably wishes Justin Pierce was one of those missing players.

Twenty-four hours after pouring in 36 points against the Panthers in the season opener, the William & Mary recruit matched that output in the Hilltoppers' 65-42 win over the Raiders at the District 87 boys basketball tournament.

"My shot was going in at the beginning," Pierce said, "and I used that to open up my inside game. I worked hard in the off-season to put on some muscle, and Coach (Tim Hoder) is trying to get me more inside looks this year."

Pierce hit four 3-pointers in the opening half, was a perfect 6 for 6 from the free-throw line and added 13 rebounds, 6 coming on the offense end.

"He's feeling it pretty much right now," Hoder said. "He is really confident and he can score in a lot of ways. He is so much stronger physically than he was last year and he can score with people leaning on him."

Pierce and Alex Passi combined to score all of the home team's points in the opening quarter as Glenbard West jumped out to a 16-9 lead and that margin swelled to 28-17 by halftime. Glenbard South never got the deficit within single digits the rest of the way.

"Our starting five, all of us are seniors and we have been playing together for so long," Pierce said. "We have an advantage over these teams, we have that chemistry already. We look pretty crisp offensively. Alex and I have played together since fourth grade."

Passi also checked into double figures with 11 points.

"South is going to be really good this year," Hoder said. "That's a team I was concerned about, their level of physicality and they play really hard. I knew we were in for a battle."

The Raiders, who began the tourney with a win against Glenbard East, were led by the 14 points of Tim Marks. Billy Bair totaled 9 points and 3 blocked shots and Kyle Carli contributed 8 points.