Glenbard South's ride comes to a stop in supersectional
Glenbard South boys basketball coach Wade Hardtke called this season a heck of a ride.
It certainly was, until Peoria Manual stopped it Tuesday night.
In Glenbard South's second supersectional appearance and first since 2000 Manual led early, weathered the Raiders' inevitable push, then kicked into transition-fueled overdrive to win 69-52 at the Class 3A Northern Illinois University supersectional at the Convocation Center in DeKalb.
"Unfortunately when you get yourself down you've got to spend so much of your energy and everything, fighting back and clawing back, and needing to get stops," Hardtke said.
"And we did. Then, I think, to be honest with you, down the stretch we kind of ran out of gas. That longer court, it makes a difference," he said.
Led by Rolando "Pee Wee" Brown with 33 points and Quintez Edwards with 19, Manual (19-11) reached that magic number of 60 points, which Glenbard South (25-7) had allowed only two other times this season, both losses. The Rams, who started the season 5-6, won their 15th supersectional and will play East St. Louis in a Class 3A semifinal on Friday.
"I had to regroup these guys, let them know you're going to have your ups and downs," said Manual coach Willie Coleman. "They understood, fought through adversity, clicked together and now we're going downstate. I'm proud of these guys."
Glenbard South started smooth as silk, Cole Hardtke and Tommy Powers putting the Raiders up 4-0 while Manual missed its first five shots.
"We just wanted to do our normal thing. The past two games we've been holding teams in the 40s - 38 in the sectional final. We want to play some 'D' and build from there," said Raiders guard Kevin Enright. He scored 10 points to join fellow seniors Powers and Hardtke in double figures, at 15 and 11 points, respectively.
Brown ignited to pace a 14-7 lead after one quarter, and Manual led 18-9 early in the second half before Glenbard South sophomore Cade Hardtke sparked a rally and brother Cole hit a 3 to get within a manageable 22-16 at halftime.
"We felt really good about our defensive effort," Powers said. "We just wanted to get something going offensively. Yeah, 45 (points) is usually our goal to keep it under."
Manual had other ideas.
"(We) went into halftime, told ourselves, we've got to keep our foot on their necks, not to get comfortable," Edwards said.
As they had all season, Glenbard South got scoring from multiple sources - Cole and Cade Hardtke, Powers, Nick Plaso, Tavion Keith - to get within 4 points twice in the third quarter, 26-22 and 30-26.
Edwards and Brown, who scored all but 4 of the Rams' points through three quarters, countered with an 11-6 run to enter the fourth quarter up 41-30.
The streak continued as the Raiders pressed, the two principles and Emaryon Byrd getting behind the defense. Despite late thunder by Powers and Enright, Manual led 62-46 with 1:31 to play.
Wade Hardtke and son Cole lingered on the court.
"My goal coming in as a freshman," Cole Hardtke said, "I wanted to win at least one regional with him, and I wanted to try and win a sectional with him, and then there was a longshot goal of, hey, maybe even go downstate. And I mean, we were right there."