West Chicago picks up the pace
Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke said it best.
“The tables turned,” he said.
A 12-0 West Chicago run in the third quarter wrested the lead for good in Tuesday's nonconference boys basketball game, won by West Chicago 71-67 on the Wildcats' senior night in Bishop Gymnasium.
“We just needed to be patient on offense, run through our plays,” said West Chicago senior John Konchar, who led all scorers with 31 points, adding 15 rebounds and 5 blocked shots.
Konchar, who needs 49 points over West Chicago's last two regular-season games and at least one playoff game to eclipse Wildcats coach Bill Recchia's program record of 1,461 points, was being guarded by a former AAU teammate, Raiders senior guard Alex Jeske.
Jeske did as well as anyone could while scoring a season-high 29 points.
“Obviously, he's the top scorer in the county so you're not going to shut him out, but you just do your best to try to contain him,” Jeske said. “You play as hard as you can and just give it your all.”
That's the spirit Recchia hoped West Chicago (14-10) had after Glenbard South (12-11), leading 35-33 at halftime, opened a 45-36 gap a little more than three minutes into the quarter.
Chaun Rickette's steal and coast-to-coast layup and 5 Jeske points on successive trips downcourt forced Recchia into a timeout.
“It was a physical, physical game,” Recchia said. “And when that happens you can either step up or you can back down and we decided to step up.”
Out of the timeout Konchar scored on a drive and then Marco Lomibao found Ryan Orr inside for a hoop. Konchar grabbed an offensive rebound and flipped an assist to Mike Bibbs, who scored in the lane to get within 45-44.
Then it was Konchar again, flying to the basket to score. He quickly stole the ball from Glenbard South — after Recchia's timeout the Raiders turned it over 5 times in a three-minute span — and Bibbs capped the 12-0 run for a 48-45 Wildcats lead.
West Chicago led 50-46 entering the fourth quarter and Glenbard South never got closer.
“Wade's team always plays hard,” Recchia said. “So we had to change it up a little bit and responded well with it.”
Rickette scored 15 points for Glenbard South, which unofficially made 23 of 60 field-goal attempts. Bibbs scored 19 points and Orr 10.
West Chicago is now guaranteed a winning record for the first time since the 2004-05 season.
“My brother (Pete) was on that team that did it last, he was a sophomore,” Konchar said. “It's pretty nice, they won a regional that year, so I really hope we get to a regional game this year and just do what they did.”
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