Glenbard South slips past Aurora Central Catholic
The postgame pizza seemed to taste better Tuesday night after Glenbard South finished on the right end of a tight boys basketball contest.
The Raiders had dropped their share of close games - including Friday's 59-57 loss to Wheaton Academy - before pulling out a 48-45 Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division thriller against visiting Aurora Central Catholic. Glenbard South trailed 42-40 midway through the fourth quarter before making clutch plays on both ends of the floor down the stretch to pull out the win.
"A little better," Raiders coach Wade Hardtke replied when asked how he was doing while enjoying a slice of pizza. "Finally, I guess. We've been in plenty of close ones, and it was nice to pull one out."
The Raiders, now 3-5 and 2-1 in the Blue, made just one 3-pointer in the game, but it was a big one. Junior guard Brandon Whiteside broke a 42-42 tie with a 3-pointer with 1:58 left to play. The shot followed a Chargers turnover and it put Glenbard South on top for good.
"I wasn't sure if Kevin (Enright) was going to throw it to me because it was such a close game," said Whiteside, who finished with 10 points and 8 rebounds on the night. "But he passed it to me and I hit the shot. It was a good pass by him.
"No hesitation. I'm a shooter."
Aurora Central Catholic also has some shooters, and the Chargers used six 3-pointers on the night to keep the game tight throughout. Mac Cowen's third 3-pointer of the night cut the Raiders' lead to 46-45 with 18.6 seconds left. After Enright knocked down a pair of free throws to make it a 48-45 game, the Chargers got another good look from beyond the arc at the buzzer but came up just short.
"We got bogged down and it was a slow, ugly game, but we've got to be able to grind it out and execute down the stretch," Aurora Central Catholic coach Nathan Drye said. "We had a bad turnover and we missed some good looks late. I feel like we should have won if we had executed down the stretch."
Glenbard South center Charlie Bair had another big night with game highs of 16 points and 15 rebounds, and he also came away with 3 steals and 2 blocks. But he was quick to credit his teammates for the win.
"They all stepped up tonight," he said while enjoying his postgame slice. "Me and Pete (Jeske) really connected tonight in the post, Kevin stepped up with big free throws and Brandon hit that huge 3 there. When the juniors and Kevin step up and play well that's usually when we win."
Enright, a sophomore, hit 3 of 4 free throws late, and Jeske finished with 15 points and also did his best to try and contain the Chargers' Brett Czerak. Czerak had 11 points in the first half but managed just one 3-pointer in the second half.