Glenbard South routs Lemont

Glenbard South guard Payton Carli and her teammates take a lot of pride in their relentless style of defense. The Raiders move their feet well to shut down drives, get in the passing lanes and constantly claw away at the opposing team trying to knock the ball loose.

That focus was front and center in Friday's Class 3A St. Joseph girls basketball regional title game against Lemont in Westchester. The Raiders defense held the Indians to 1 field goal in the first half and rode that stingy play to a 50-26 victory.

This win set a Glenbard South record for victories in a season. The No. 4 Raiders (25-3) will play No. 1 seed Montini (27-5) at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Orr sectional semifinals.

"We have been doing that all year," said Glenbard South coach Julie Fonda about her team's defensive prowess. "I put 100 percent emphasis on my defense. We work hard at it. They click together and buy into defense and that's what makes it easy to coach them."

Carli really epitomizes what this defense is all about. The scrappy junior is all over the place, diving for the ball and stepping into the lane to pick off passes. She collected 6 steals, including 3 in a short span during the early going of the second quarter. She scored on two of those steals and fed Jenna Brambora for a score off another picked off pass.

Other players who came up with big steals included guard Alex LaPonte, center Sydney Bauman and Brambora. The Raiders forced 14 Lemont turnovers in the first half and led 28-6 at halftime after a slow start by both teams in the first quarter.

"(Payton) does a great job of anticipating and uses her body really well to block off the person who is going to receive the basketball," Fonda said. "She gets in the passing lane and gets a tip on it. She is relentless and doesn't give up on the ball after it is tipped."

"We really moved our feet," Carli said. "We stopped the drive. We were all over the place getting touches and just helped each other out."

Added guard Ivana Markovic: "We were all over the place and picked it up on defense. We usually rely on our defense and then offense will come."

Carli finished with 10 points as did Bauman. Sharpshooter Markovic led the way for the Raiders with a game-high 12 points, all on 3-pointers. She was red hot in the third quarter sinking three 3s. Brambora chipped in 9 points.

"I just saw the open opportunities and I took them," Markovic said. "It was on and I made them."

Lemont (17-12) was led by 8 points by Ali Kramer.

"(The Raiders) played strong from the beginning and set the tone," said Lemont coach William Bozue. "We didn't respond well under the pressure."