Glenbard North comes back to beat Glenbard South in OT

Glenbard North picked the right time in Saturday afternoon's girls basketball game to find its shooting touch.

Trailing by 8 in the fourth quarter of a low-scoring game, the Panthers rallied to force overtime, then pulled away to a 43-34 victory in the extra period against Glenbard South at the Rachel Bach Tournament at Glenbard East.

"I told them we played really good defense throughout," said Glenbard North coach John Chamberlain, whose team won the tournament last year. "We looked a little mopey offense, for lack of a better term. We weren't really connecting well. Our girls, I think they tend to need to push some of the mental stuff aside and just play, and so they finally showed up and became themselves, hit some shots. They weren't really worried about what was going to happen. And they just started playing a little more natural basketball."

Glenbard South (0-1) took a 29-21 lead with just more than six minutes to go on a putback by junior Ally Daca. It looked like the Raiders were in good shape.

"I thought we were playing really well," Raiders coach Morgan Kasperek said. "And then we just can't hit a free throw and you can see us clam up. We started to get nervous and were like, oh, they're making a run. They've got to get used to that pressure, the pressure Glenbard North brought the whole game."

The Panthers cut the Raiders' lead to 31-30 with 1:15 to play in the fourth quarter on Zakiya Newsome's lay-in. Leah Miller's 3-pointer gave Glenbard North a brief lead, but Daca scored with 19 seconds left to send the game to overtime at 33-33.

Overtime was all Panthers (3-0). They scored the first seven points to win the game on the first day of tournament pool play.

"These girls have been together now for two years and they know what it's like," said Kasperek, whose team was playing its first game of the season. "So I'm a little surprised with how we came out. Now with that being said, Glenbard North is a great team. They played hard, they are very patient on offense, things we haven't seen. They bump cutters really nicely. They do a little things really well, fundamentally sound. He always has those girls ready to go. They did a nice job tonight."

Newsome led the Panthers with 16 points. Daca's 17 paced the Raiders.

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