Glenbard West hangs with Hinsdale Central for a while
Maybe it was only a matter of time.
Glenbard West went toe-to-toe with mighty Hinsdale Central for about 11 minutes Tuesday night in Hinsdale before the Red Devils began pulling away to a 63-41 West Suburban Silver victory.
A 10-0 Hinsdale Central (8-2, 5-0) run broke open a 17-17 game midway through the second quarter, and the Hilltoppers never threatened again.
“I was pleased with what we did,” Glenbard West coach Mike Hofland said of his team’s start. “We did some real nice things, the energy was there and the kids were going hard. We were moving the ball. I thought we caught them off guard a little bit with the box-and-one (defense). We were doing OK, but then when the shots weren’t falling (Hinsdale Central senior Lily Sarros) started to outrebound us, and that killed us. You’ve got to rebound to win games.”
“They did a really nice job of controlling the tempo for a while, but I thought if we could get up to speed we’d be in good shape, which we did,” Red Devils coach Tom McKenna added. “(The 10-0 run) made a huge difference. I thought if we could make that kind of separation, they might struggle to score.”
Caitlin Soane was the only Hilltopper to score in the second quarter, picking up 12 of her game-high 17 points.
Soane, a 6-foot-3 center heading to Loyola University, couldn’t overcome the Hinsdale Central trio of Gabrielle Rush, Maddie Roglich and Sarros. Rush had her usual strong game with 16 points, a total Roglich matched with an 11-point third quarter that squashed any hopes the Hilltoppers had of a comeback. Sarros scored 12 points but really hurt Glenbard West (3-10, 1-3) with her 8 rebounds, 6 of them on the offensive end. None of the three played the final 10 minutes.
“We thought (rebounding) would be a big strength because (Soane), as big as she is, does not go inside much,” McKenna said. “So we thought we could dominate inside on the boards. Those second shots, a lot of times they lead to and-ones, which is really nice. These kids are playing well. I’m really happy with them.”
The game marked the return of Hilltoppers senior guard Tracy Flood from injury, joining classmate Natalie Noland, who returned from injury about 10 days ago.
“I thought she did a nice job,” Hofland said of Flood’s return. “It’s just a matter of us getting some practice time with them all together and getting that mojo back with all of our kids knowing what everybody does. It’s going to happen in practice. We’re healthy, now we’ve got to stay healthy.”