Defense gets Glenbard South going
Up. Down. Up and up.
That describes how Glenbard South played in its four quarters Thursday night while hosting Fenton and closing out the Raiders home campaign on senior night.
Glenbard South jumped ahead of the Bison 13-0 and eventually claimed the Metro Suburban Conference girls contest 49-26. But after the great start, the Raiders (19-6, 10-2) didn’t make a single shot from the floor in the second quarter and the Bison tied the game at 15 before a pair of Taylor Malone free throws gave the home team a 17-15 lead at the break.
The Raiders then stormed out of the gates after the intermission, took command with a 16-4 third quarter and then had no letup at all in the second half while winning in dominating fashion to finish second in the conference and head into next week’s postseason on a high note.
“We played three quarters of outstanding basketball,” Glenbard South coach Julie Fonda said. “We adjusted at halftime and we kind of put all our eggs in the defense. We were kind of stagnant on offense, but if you can put everything in defense you have the result we got.”
Glenbard South forced Fenton into 13 turnovers in the first quarter and then had nine more takeaways while taking charge in the third quarter. Eight players recorded steals, including 4 from Stefi Bazigos.
Center Sydney Bauman even got into the thievery with a trio of steals, but the 6-foot-2 sophomore also had 9 points, 9 rebounds and 7 blocked shots.
“Coach emphasizes that defense will do it for us,” said Bauman, who scored 4 quick points in the second half and later added a three-point play as the Raiders pulled away in the fourth quarter. “We tried to put everything into defense and the results came.”
For Bison coach Tim Anderson, battling back from that 13-0 hole was nice to see, but what happened in the second half was tough to stomach.
“We talked about that (turnaround). That’s really what our focus was at halftime,” he said. “Then we turn the ball over five times to start the third quarter. That was it.”
When senior Hannah Taylor hit a short jumper midway through the third quarter, the Raiders were on a 10-0 run to open the second half aided by 6 Fenton turnovers. Twice the Bison were called for five-second violations while attempting to inbound the basketball.
“Those five-second calls were awesome,” said Baumann, noting that this was the type of game that should help send the Raiders off into next week’s regional play. “We wanted to win on senior night for the seniors, and this is a confidence booster for us.”
Tomei Ball paced the Raiders with 10 points, and Ivana Markovic added 9 points and a pair of steals. For Fenton, Alissa Whyte knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the first half and shared team-high scoring honors with Sydney Montano at 8 points.