Glenbard South opens with a rout

The Glenbard South girls basketball team booked its ticket to the Class 3A St. Francis regional final with a 70-14 regional semifinal victory over the Orr Spartans on Wednesday.

The Raiders (20-7) ended the first quarter up 17-0 and didn't allow the Spartans to score until minute 2:36 in the second quarter, ending the first half up 41-5.

"I think we played sloppy defense in the first half," said Glenbard South coach Julie Fonda. "I think they did a better job in the second half and kind of pulled it together. Obviously, offensively we put the ball in the basket and had some trouble in the beginning in converting, but we had our shot opportunities, which is all that mattered."

The Spartans (7-14) - in their first year as a program - will take the loss as a learning opportunity, according to coach Andre Johnson.

"The conversation before the game and leading up to the game was just about competing and giving it your best effort," Johnson said. "And while I don't believe we put our best effort forward today I think it was a great learning experience for us not only in basketball but in life in general."

Glenbard South was led by junior guards Megan Smith and Alex LaPonte. Smith finished with 15 points on the night, dropping two of her team's 3-pointers. LaPonte came off the bench to add 12 points.

Smith said the Raiders will be ready to put their mark on the regional finals.

"We're really going to try and push the ball and get back on (defense)," Smith said. "It's what we've been working on recently, and we're just going to do what we do best and execute offensively and defensively."

With just an eight-girl bench the Spartans were outmanned to begin with, but that didn't stop them from coming out of halftime and dropping two 3-pointers - one by Tatyana Young and one by Faith Mitchell - to help get Orr into double digits.

Young finished the night with a team-high 9 points, firing off two 3-pointers against a tough Raiders defense.

"It's been an up and down year for my girls," Johnson said. "This is a first-year program, most of my girls this is the first year, first organized experience, so we've learned a lot along the way."