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York catches up to Glenbard West down the stretch

Just a typical boys basketball game in the West Suburban Silver, with one small exception.

In the teams' usual back-and-forth, low-scoring kind of game, York came back from a 6-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat host Glenbard West 46-43 Friday night in Glen Ellyn.

The teams traded the lead 10 times, with three ties.

"We just tried to win one possession at a time," York coach Vince Doran said of the Dukes' stretch run. "There were a lot of runs. When we play each other the first one to 40 typically wins."

This time 40 wasn't quite enough. The Hilltoppers looked like they were going to take control when they scored the first 7 points of the fourth quarter to lead 40-34. But Dukes sophomore guard Nick Kosich ended the run with a layup with 4:45 to play, and the York defense limited Glenbard West (3-2, 0-1) to 3 points the rest of the game.

"We made a lot of mistakes," Hilltoppers coach Tim Hoder said. "I think we showed some of our inexperience tonight."

Senior Nick Trapani's deep 3-pointer brought York (4-1, 1-0) within 2 points with 1:52 to play, and sophomore Michael Pedote's 3 gave the Dukes a 44-43 lead with just less than a minute left. A pair of Kosich free throws finished the scoring with 13.6 seconds to go.

"It was big. It was big for us," York senior Jordan Gray said of Trapani's 3. "We needed it. Michael's 3 down the stretch too was really, really good."

Gray, a 6-foot-5, 234-pound post player, led the Dukes with 14 points, 8 in the second quarter.

"They were bringing somebody over from the weak side trying to throw off my rhythm, but I just went on and played," said Gray, who muscled his way to the basket. "I'm a pretty strong dude."

"We had a pretty clear game plan for how to guard their guys, and I actually think we did a pretty good job on Gray," Hoder added. "He's really strong down there. But we lost their shooters a little bit. They shoot the ball really well, and you can't leave those guys unguarded."

For Doran it was good to see his players overcome a difficult night to prevail down the stretch.

"That's good toughness," he said. "You don't see that too much at our level. When kids are having a bad night, they're usually not mentally tough enough to come back, and those guys were, so I'm proud of them for that."

Junior Kevin Nelson led Glenbard West with 12 points, all on 3-pointers.

"Kev, when he's in rhythm, is a really, really good shooter. I thought our kids did a nice job of finding him, especially early," Hoder said.

Follow Orrin on Twitter @Orrin_Schwarz

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