Seniors lead Downers North past Glenbard West

Downers Grove North came out for Friday night's girls basketball game ready to have fun.

The Trojans also made sure Glenbard West didn't have much fun once the game started.

Wearing Hawaiian shirts and leis for warmups, the Trojans gave their seniors a warm sendoff with a 45-30 senior night victory in Downers Grove.

"It feels awesome," Trojans senior Nicole Salerno said. "I don't know how else to end a senior year, to get a win and have fun and be able to shed some tears."

The Trojans' 1-2-2 zone defense caused problems for the Hilltoppers (11-15, 3-9) all night. Glenbard West scored just 9 first-half points.

"We kind of stood around a little bit and weren't as aggressive as we needed to be to split the difference," Hilltoppers coach Karen Persinger said. "Give DGN credit for that, but it felt like we were a little passive, which we corrected in the third quarter. That opened things up for us."

Persinger was more impressed with her team's defense, especially the first half.

"Defensively, we did a great job the first half," Persinger said. "We held them to 17 points. You can't ask for much more than that."

"Glenbard is one of those teams - this is the third time we've played them too - they're scrappy, they're tough, they do things in a nice way to play to their strengths ...," Trojans coach Stephan Bolt said. "I thought they did a pretty good job defensively early on, and then we kind of got into a flow."

Downers Grove North's lead didn't reach double digits until Jaida Green made it 33-23 with the first basket of the fourth quarter. A Madison Farnsworth bucket made the lead 37-23 with just less than six minutes to play, and the Trojans were in control.

"We start to get going, and after that there's no stopping our team because we finally pull it all together and we're like, OK, we know what has to get done," Salerno said.

Senior Jaida Green, a Penn State recruit, scored 16 points, just under her average, and grabbed 12 rebounds.

"It just seemed like when we got a basket, Green stepped up and countered for them tonight," Persinger said. "You have to give her credit for that."

Fellow senior Lauren Porcelli added 11 points and 6 assists for the Trojans (17-8, 7-5).

"I thought Lauren had a great night," Bolt said. "She gets to places on the floor where you don't want her to get, and she's making the right decisions. Today she did a great job of distributing the ball, and Jaida was her normal self, getting to the basket an knocking down some shots."

Glenbard West senior Grey Hayes scored a game-best 17 points.

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