Glenbard South makes easy work of St. Edward

Glenbard South girls basketball coach Julie Fonda worried very little about the Raiders' offense Tuesday, only because her sales pitch before South came out and ran St. Edward out of its own gym 65-41, was that its defense would create all the chaos on offense the Raiders needed.

And while a well-polished defense out of South (18-3, 8-0) reeked havoc on the Green Wave with 17 turnovers, how the Raiders grabbed their eighth straight win and stayed undefeated in the Metro Suburban West might have been more impressive since all the defensive intensity that sparked a huge 15-2 run in the second quarter wasn't at all lost after the intermission.

In fact, it fired right back up on all cylinders in the third quarter, which made the pick between which quarter was better - a 20-point second or a 21-point third - much tougher.

"I liked the third quarter the best because you're in the locker room, you take that break and to come back with that same mentality is often difficult," Fonda said. "That's when the tide kind of turned a little bit."

And the two Energizer Bunnies - as Fonda likes to call them - who helped turn the tide, Payton Carli and Ivana Markovic, kept going and going and going and frustrated the living daylights out of St. Edward.

The Green Wave (14-8, 5-7) watched Glenbard South turn a 4-point second quarter lead into 27 after three quarters with a 41-18 edge and much of that came from Carli, who scored a game-high 22 points on 9 of 10 shooting while Markovic poured in 17 along with 3 assists, as both tallied 3 steals each.

"Our intensity was there and our defense definitely helped with our offense," Carli said. "Those steals on our press and those touches really brought us together and those good passes that we all had helped us score."

Carli set the game ablaze with the aforementioned run to start the second quarter when she scored 6 straight to put the Raiders up 26-16 with 4:45 left, the last on a steal at midcourt which led to her easy layup. After reserve Sarah Cohen nailed 5 straight points, Carli came back and sank 2 free throws for a 33-16 lead.

Markovic, on the other hand, was busier in the third as she scored 8 points, finishing 5 of 6 from the field, nailing one 3-pointer and taking a steal straight to the rim for a basket. The Raiders scored 16 points off the Wave turnovers alone and shot a scorching 62.5 percent clip with 32 points coming in the paint.

"They never stop and that's why I love coaching them," Fonda said. "(Carli) reaped the benefits of great passes from her teammates and (Ivana) creates so much on defense and she's tough to guard on offense because she puts the ball on the floor and goes hard to the rim or she can post you up and she can step back and hit the 3. She's a tough kid to match up with, especially when you have to pay so much attention to (Sydney Bauman)."

Bauman scored 10 points along with 9 rebounds to be the third Raider to score in double figures. The Wave's Cece Rapp registered 17 points and 9 rebounds, but the 1-2-2 zone gave St. Edward fits at times, which tried to take away Rapp but held every other Wave player in check.

"We had too many turnovers. They went on a little bit of a run and we just had some mental mistakes," said St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson. "Their defense is relentless, they just keep coming after you."