Glenbard South leaves no doubt
Glenbard South guard Steffy Bazigos was having too much fun Tuesday night to notice her right hand was swollen, much less ever think about asking to come out.
The Raiders senior shook off the finger injury to torch host Willowbrook for 15 first-half points on her way to 22 total points in a surprisingly one-sided 77-37 defeat of the Warriors (17-3).
At some point in the first half Bazigos suffered the injury but she still managed to connect on 5 of 8 shots — including three 3-pointers — as Glenbard South built a commanding 42-21 lead at half.
“I really don’t know what happened. I just looked down and my finger was swollen,” she said. “I literally have no idea (how it happened). I probably didn’t notice because the game was intense so I was just following the game.”
The 13-6 Raiders moved the ball well, shot well and played great defense. After two quarters they were shooting 68 percent from the floor while holding Willowbrook to just 23 percent shooting.
“We’re a good team. Bottom line,” Raiders coach Julie Fonda said. “We shot really well tonight. We played pretty good defense. They made the adjustments that we needed to make, and offensively we executed tremendously.”
Bazigos said Fonda told the team at the half not to let up at all just because they had a big lead. Fonda knew a swollen hand would not keep her senior from finishing the game strong, which Bazigos did by finishing with 22 points, 7 rebounds and a pair of assists.
“At halftime coach Fonda told us we couldn’t let up,” Bazigos said. “We didn’t even look at the scoreboard. It’s 32 minutes of basketball. We’re going to play to the height of our talent and keep playing no matter what the score is.”
Fonda added of Bazigos: “She’s a gamer. She’s going to keep going at it until you she her arms hanging off and I’m pulling her out of the game. She’s not going to shy away from a little bump that she got.”
Senior Tomei Ball also was on top of her game for the Raiders, tallying 17 points and adding 6 rebounds and 5 assists, while junior center Sydney Bauman scored 10 points and had 9 rebounds in the game.
While the Raiders were sharp, the Warriors looked nothing like the team that had knocked off Providence by 18 points the previous day.
“We played as bad today as we played good yesterday,” Warriors coach Terry Harrell said. “We didn’t play defense, and the one thing we can always count on is playing defense. We didn’t make any baskets, but that happens.
“But not playing defense is a problem. They were coming off cuts wide open, which is something we normally don’t allow.”
Josie Zabran paced Willowbrook with 13 points and 8 boards off the bench.