Big 2nd half sends Glenbard East past Aurora Christian
Offense. Defense. They're pretty much the same to Deon Cook.
“For me, my offense is my defense,” said the Glenbard East senior guard. “So when I'm playing defense that's when I'm trying to get the steal, get the layup.”
Trailing Aurora Christian by a point at halftime, Cook and Co. erupted with a dominant third-quarter highlighting, yep, Rams offense and defense. Rebounds, too, pacing Glenbard East's 59-46 win over the Eagles in the first of four games at Saturday's When Sides Collide Shootout in Lombard, its best-attended of all nine years.
“It was all about pride,” said Rams junior forward LaDonus Rogers, who grabbed 12 rebounds and scored 7 points with 2 steals. “We talked at halftime how we've got to come out and execute, and that's what we did. We just came and outplayed them.”
On Rogers' putback 10 seconds into the third quarter Glenbard East (13-6) took a 28-27 lead it never relinquished.
As part of a 20-1 run, Cook scored 10 of his 14 points, Jack Rivas scored 5 and Joe Hamilton 3 to support Rams guard DaRon Hall, who scored 10 of his 14 points in the first half.
Moving the ball in the half-court and transition, hitting 3s, Glenbard East caused 5 turnovers, grabbed 14 rebounds and forced Aurora Christian coach Dan Beebe into three timeouts trying to cool things down.
Aurora Christian (13-4) never truly did, trailing 46-30 after three quarters and narrowing the margin only to 11 thereafter.
“I think they played hard,” Beebe said of his boys, “we just didn't shoot the ball real well (18 of 48) and you're just not going to win a lot of games, especially against quality ballclubs.”
With about five minutes left Rams players started spreading the floor without coach Scott Miller ordering the tactic, impressing the veteran coach by taking ownership.
“I think we're growing as a team,” said Miller, who won his 351st game.
The Rams had to deal with Aurora Christian superstar Taaj Davis, who previously had consecutive games of 56 and 54 points and another of 44.
It looked like the senior guard was headed to megapoints with 15 by halftime and Cook in early foul trouble. Glenbard East's Nick Janega came in to contribute on both ends of the court.
Davis finished with 24 points, Karsen Olsen with 8 for a Class 1A Eagles team facing a 4A foe.
“We were just in attack mode, going hard, playing hard, playing defense and not losing our man, and just controlling the pace of the game,” Davis said of the first 16 minutes. “The second half they came out hard, we came out soft. That's what happens.”