Timothy Christian settles down, beats Glenbard South

As Timothy Christian senior guard Ty Merrick said, "A win is a win."

Yep. Regardless of 23 turnovers, occasional scoring droughts and their top player fouling out with 3 points, the Trojans boys basketball team certainly accepted Friday's 45-40 Metro Suburban Conference crossover win at Glenbard South.

"We go in stretches where we go dry," said Trojans coach Scott Plaisier, "and tonight fortunately we were really good defensively and we were able to kind of subside ourself a little bit with some of the turnovers and some of the missed shots and still get a couple of stops to give us a chance."

Timothy Christian (10-4) got much mileage out of five guards plus a bit of 6-foot-6 Danardo Jones, since 6-7 Brandon Orange drew his fourth foul early in the third quarter. The Trojans still won the rebounding battle 35-23 paced by Merrick with 13.

While Glenbard South (6-10) allowed only 45 points, which wins many games, the Raiders' top scorer, Brandon Whiteside, was limited to 5 points, 15 under his average. Timothy junior Chris Brooks drew the defensive assignment, supplemented by brief zone looks with the 6-2 Merrick covering the paint.

"Defensively he was great," Plaisier said of Brooks. "Being able to hold Whiteside, it's a heck of a night."

Timothy led 13-4 after one quarter. Glenbard South's Tommy Powers had fans abuzz with three 3-pointers off the bench, still the Trojans led 27-20 at halftime.

Things changed a bit, said gutty Raiders guard Kevin Enright, who took two charges after removing a face mask to protect a banged-up nose.

"Coach (Wade Hardtke) came out and just wrote one word on the board and that was 'Attack,' and that's what we started to do and that got us back in the game. We were hustling all over the floor and that's what we needed to do," Enright said.

A 10-0 run capped by another Powers 3 and Enright's free throw gave Glenbard South its first lead, 31-29, at 3:35 of the third quarter.

Stopping the bleeding, Matt Owens' jumper and Merrick's two free throws had Timothy up 33-31 entering the fourth.

Despite 10 fourth-quarter turnovers, Powers and Tavion Keith each snagging two steals, Timothy opened an 8-point lead and thereafter didn't let the Raiders within 3. In the final minute Mike Thomas scored off Brooks' assist, and Justin Baez answered two Whiteside free throws with two of his own with 7.2 seconds left.

Timothy Christian's Thomas, Baez, Merrick and Brooks all scored between 11 and 8 points; Powers' 15 led the Raiders.

"They're a tough team and I thought for the most part we matched them toe to toe and everything, but unfortunately we struggled to put the ball in the basket down the stretch," Hardtke said.