Glenbard East spoils party
Glenbard East wasn’t in the mood for a party.
After a couple of tough weekends, the Rams jumped out to a big lead Friday night and then held off a Wheaton Warrenville South rally for a 69-57 victory in Wheaton.
“It was a good win for us,” Rams coach Scott Miller said. “I was real happy with the way we came out. A lot of energy early and we got some good separation.
“They’re a good team. They made a couple of runs in the second half. I thought we did a nice job of kind of stemming the tide a little bit at key times.”
Glenbard East led 22-8 after one quarter, 36-24 after two, then built the lead to 53-33 on Tyree York’s 15-foot jumper with 2:55 left in the third.
“They shot the ball really well,” Tigers coach Mike Healy said of Glenbard East (16-3, 8-0 DuPage Valley Conference). “They shot the ball extremely well. They’re very talented offensively.”
But on a night when the home fans celebrated Healy’s upcoming 40th birthday, Healy’s Tigers (9-9, 4-4) weren’t ready to concede. WW South scored the final 8 points of the period and 20 of the next 25 overall, pulling to within 5 on senior Kevin Bridges’ third 3-pointer of the night with 2:30 left in the game. Bridges finished with 19 points.
“It’s never easy when you play Wheaton South,” Rams senior Zach Miller said. “We made a good push coming out and we thought we had them down. But Reilly and coach Healy are going to get them going again. We knew they had another punch left and they kind of gave us their best shot. We hung in there, got kind of lackadaisical with the ball.”
The Rams pulled away one final time by hitting their free throws, scoring their last 11 points at the line.
“I knew I had to hit them,” said Zach Miller, who hit 7 of 8 at the line after Bridges’ 3. “It’s a 5-point game. They’re right on our tail.”
Johnny Hill finished with 20 points for the Rams, and Zach Miller added 16.
WW South’s Jason Schuman was a force in the low post, scoring 20 points.
“He was great,” Healy said of Schuman. “He’s coming on. He’ll be big for us the rest of the year. He played OK the first, whatever, 15 games. But the last two games he’s played really well, wanted the ball, asked for the ball, finished around the basket.”