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Newsome, Glenbard North roll past Glenbard East

Greg Newsome prefers to pass first and shoot only when necessary.

The Glenbard North point guard did a lot of both Monday night.

Newsome, a 6-foot-2 junior, sank his first five shots en route to a game-high 23 points. He also dished three of his team's 12 assists as the Panthers rolled past Glenbard East 71-50 on the opening night of the Glenbard West Thanksgiving Tournament.

"We're looking for Greg to score and to be a leader out there," Glenbard North coach Joe Larson said. "I thought he did a nice job playing a great floor game tonight, not only with the scoring but giving other guys opportunities and taking care of the basketball and playing good defense."

Newsome, who shot 8 for 10 from the floor and 6 for 7 from the line, tallied 7 points in the first quarter. The Panthers (1-0) scored their first five baskets on layups and opened with a 13-2 run.

"I was just blowing by the (defender) every time and my team just kept telling me to go by him and score, so I kept scoring," Newsome said. "I just score whenever we need it.

"I'm a pass-first type of a guy, but whenever my team needs me to score, that's just my role."

Glenbard East (0-1) had no answer for Newsome or 6-5 senior swingman Myles Moore, who made his first three shots and finished with 11 points.

The Panthers led 16-4 after one quarter and 20-7 following a coast-to-coast layup by Newsome. Moore then took a seat when he picked up his second foul on Orlando Kimbrough's three-point play with 4:43 left in the second quarter.

The game settled into a half-court style after that but the Panthers didn't miss a beat without Moore, using terrific defensive rebounding and patient passing to wear down the Rams.

"I thought we played well defensively," Larson said. "It led to some transition stuff.

"That's something we definitely focused on coming into the ball game and the fellas did a good job with it."

Indeed, the Panthers earned a 30-20 edge on the glass, with the Rams grabbing only three offensive rebounds.

"At practice we work on a lot of boxing out drills," Newsome said. "We're not the biggest team, but we're really athletic, so we work on boxing out and moving the ball up the floor to get easy layups."

Unlike last year, the Panthers want to rely less on long-distance shooting. They went 4 for 14 from 3-point range while the Rams were 6 for 26.

"Coach is focused a lot on moving the ball a lot this season and going more for layups than 3-point shots," Newsome said. "So we just kept moving the ball and playing within the offense."

Chamar Flanigan added 11 points and center Kibet Chepyator had 8 points and 6 rebounds for the Panthers. Kimbrough had 9 points, all in the first half, to lead Glenbard East.

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