Maine South downs Glenbrook North for sixth straight win
One year ago Maine South's boys basketball team got on season-ending run where it won 10 games in a row and 12 of its last 13 which landed the Hawks in a Class 4A regional final.
This season, after a rough beginning, the Hawks have once again undertaken a late takeoff as they captured their sixth straight win at Glenbrook North Friday Night over the host Spartans 62-38.
The win evened South's mark in Central Suburban North play to 3-3 and moved it to 13-9 overall.
The visitors from Park Ridge achieved victory by strong starts to each quarter of play. A 9-0 start over the first 4:19 of the game led by the inside tandem of 6-foot-7 senior Nick Ostojic and 6-5 junior Marko Anderson allowed South to establish an early dominance inside the paint that it wouldn't relinquish as they teamed up for 8 of the Hawks' 11 first-quarter points.
Ostojic (11 points, 10 rebounds) then fueled a 7-0 run to start period number two first with an inside hoop off a Nikola Zelenovic feed, then setting up junior guard Casey Clark's second straight bucket which left the Hawks ahead 18-3 at the 5:35 mark and 27-13 at the break.
Hawk junior swingman Sean Gallery took over to commence the second half as he tallied 7 of his game-high 15 during a 14-2 run which had South up 41-15 with 2:57 left in the third.
GBN (4-14, 0-5) then had its highlight reel going on a 15-2 scoring binge during the remainder of the period that got the Spartans within 43-30 as they connected on four straight from beyond the arc after a 3-point play by Brandon Gordon at the 2:43 mark.
The Hawks, however, had another strong start over the first half of the final stanza as a 10-0 run left them safely ahead 53-32 with 4:07 left as Ostojic connected from inside the paint for his final points.
Gallery and Ostojic were joined in double figures by Anderson and Clark, who each scored 14 points. The Hawks also outbounded North 32-17 for the contest.
The Spartans, who dropped their ninth straight decision, were led by 6-1 senior forward Ben Foster's 12 points.
"Getting early starts and getting positive contributions is really important," Maine South coach Tony Lovarato, Jr. said. "I thought Glenbrook North did an outstanding job late in the third quarter. I put a couple of our young guys in and we got a little flustered with that. What we did was put our starters back in and they did what we needed to do. I was really proud of our performance tonight."
A performance that Gallery felt was the result of things clicking on all cylinders for his teammates.
"I just think our energy was really big for us," Gallery said. "I think we communicated really well on defense and we didn't really turn the ball over that much (eight times, two in the first half). I (also) thought we got good transitions that led to some easy baskets from it."