Team effort key for Glenbard East

The Glenbard East boys basketball team bounced back from its first loss of the season with a 52-32 victory over Glenbard South in the final night of the District 87 tournament at Glenbard West on Wednesday.

The Rams (2-1) took control after a slow start in the first half thanks to a score-by-committee mentality. They led 15-7 by the first quarter and by going 4 of 6 from behind the arc paired with a 5-point second quarter from the Raiders, Glenbard East took a 29-12 lead by halftime.

"That's kind of the way we're gonna be," said Glenbard East coach Scott Miller. "We've got some kids who are going to put it in the basket, but for the most part we're going to spread it out and play some team basketball. So I'm just really pleased overall with the effort, especially on the defensive end."

Glenbard South struggled, to say the least.

"That was a rough one," said Raiders coach Wade Hardtke. "Tonight unfortunately we couldn't hit a shot and when you struggle it seems like the wheels just start falling off and we didn't have anything to keep the wheels going."

The Raiders (1-2) hit just 2 field goals and one 3-pointer in the first half, going 5 of 13 from the free-throw line.

The second half was another slow start for both teams, but points from eight players helped the Rams stay in control.

Glenbard South's Billy Bair and Charlie Bair seemed to have the only success for the Raiders. Senior Billy Bair had 5 of the team's 12 points in the first half, adding 2 more points in the second while his sophomore brother, Charlie, had a team-high 8 points in the second half.

The Rams had Patrick Peterkin with 11 points, while Adam Eboli - who said he thought Glenbard East had a lot to be encouraged by in the tournament - added 9 points of his own.

"For two games we had a nice strong start," Eboli said. "Our plays are a little iffy, but we're moving the ball well and we're running the break a lot. We need to work on rebounding a little but starting to get more bodies in there and our rebounding improved this game really well."

Glenbard East ended the game going 5 of 14 from behind the arc and struggled from the free-throw line, going 11 of 23.