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Taylor gives Glenbard West a lift

Evan Taylor's dead legs came alive at the perfect moment.

The junior wing's step-back jumper with 1.9 seconds left lifted Glenbard West's boys basketball team to Saturday's 51-50 West Suburban Silver victory over Hinsdale Central in Glen Ellyn.

Both teams won league games in overtime Friday night and had to turn around quickly for a 12:30 p.m. matinee. Overcoming an understandably sluggish start, the intensity and level of play rose late leading up to Taylor's game-winner.

"I have to be the best player on the floor when it comes to crunchtime, so I made sure I took that shot," Taylor said. "It felt good as it came out of my hands. It was hard to come back here at 12:30 after last night, but once we got going we got our energy and our legs back. I was surprised how intense it got at the end."

Hinsdale Central (8-17, 4-8) rallied from a 6-point deficit with five minutes left, taking a 50-49 lead with 17 seconds left on Trevor Hamilton's driving layup. Forgoing a timeout, Taylor dribbled into the frontcourt, drained the clock and then drained the jumper.

After a timeout the Red Devils' desperation shot at the buzzer went off the mark.

"I thought the defense was good on (Taylor), he just hit a tough shot," said Red Devils coach Nick Latorre. "We're playing well. It was nice to see some different guys step up for us."

The rotations went a little deeper on Saturday, which allowed Hinsdale Central sophomore Ryan Isaacson to score all 8 of his points in the fourth quarter. Matt Guglielmo made five 3-pointers to lead the Red Devils with 15 points. Hamilton added 11 points.

Taylor scored half his 14 points in the fourth quarter. Nick Dwyer and Caden Phillips scored 10 points apiece for the Hilltoppers (14-11, 5-7) in a game that saw 14 lead changes and six ties.

"I knew the difference would be the energy after last night," said Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder. "And I knew when it came down to it, it'd be intense."

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