Glenbard West can’t catch York
Glenbard West went toe-to-toe with West Suburban Silver foe York on Friday night in Elmhurst and found out like many basketball teams have that a bad quarter can send a squad’s fortunes southward.
The Dukes (18-5, 7-2) prevailed 58-50 and a big reason was their 17-4 scoring advantage in the third quarter that held up despite the Hilltoppers’ 21-point outburst in the final quarter.
“I was pleased with the guys’ effort. But we have work to do to avoid what happen in the third quarter,” said Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder, whose team dropped to 10-9, 3-5.
York senior David Cohn, who finished with a game-high 29 points, was effective from the opening tipoff until the end of the game. He scored 13 first-half points and nine in the crucial third quarter.
Hoder spoke highly of his team’s defense but said certain aspects of it needed to be tightened up Friday night and weren’t.
“It seemed that with a broken play or tipped rebound that David got his play. We needed to tighten up on loose balls and broken plays,” Hoder said.
The Hilltoppers’ Keith Hayes had a big night with a team-high 19 points, and his play was crucial to Glenbard West controlling the first half. He scored eight points in the first quarter, including two 3-pointers to give his team a 14-13 lead at the end of the first eight minutes. Glenbard West shot 5 of 8 from the field and York was 6 of 13.
“Whether he scores or not, Keith helps the team,” Hoder said.
The Hilltoppers led 25-22 at intermission and continued a hot hand with 5-of-11 shooting.
Nathan Marcus’ basket with just less than seven minutes left in the third quarter put Glenbard West up 27-26 and that was the last time the Hilltoppers had the lead.
The Dukes finished the quarter on a 13-2 run with Cohn scoring six of the points.
“He showed why he’s a four-year guy. When we struggled offensively early, he took the game over,” said York coach Vince Doran.
The Hilltoppers didn’t go away as evidenced by them pulling to within 51-48 with 31 seconds left in the game on Jeff Levesque’s three-point play. He was next on the Glenbard West scoresheet with 10 points.