Glenbard West catches Lyons Twp.

For more than 27 minutes Glenbard West played from behind, absorbing numerous runs from Lyons Twp. and cutting into leads but never able to gain a lead itself.

With 5:27 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Hilltoppers finally caught up to the Lions. Two 3-point field goals from senior guard Nick Dwyer and many free throws later, the Hilltoppers walked out of their home gym with a 60-52 victory against their West Suburban Conference Silver Division foe.

"It speaks to our defense," Dwyer said when asked about the late comeback where his team outscored the Lions 24-12 in the fourth quarter.

"The offense will come when we shoot and Evan (Taylor) is a big part of that, but when we started playing better defense and getting big rebounds that started transitioning into our offensive success."

Dwyer finished with a team-high 16 points, while do-it-all junior guard Evan Taylor tallied 14 points on 6-for-16 shooting and junior big man Caden Phillips chipped in 13 points on an efficient 5-for-6 from the field.

But it was Dwyer who was the star, hitting a pair of 3-point field goals and a transition layup late in the fourth quarter to help his team seal the comeback. He hit another pair of 3s on back-to-back possessions in the third quarter to stifle a Lions 7-0 run.

"After I hit one or two (3-point field goals) and I had a layup, they started calling plays for me to run and get a 3 and that's what I did," Dwyer said. "I just caught it and shot. Didn't think, just shot and it ended up going in."

For most of the night, it looked like Lyons junior guard Tyrese Shines' offensive magic coupled with the Hilltoppers shooting struggles would be enough for the Lions to escape with their second conference victory of the season.

Shines finished with a game-high 29 points on 11 for 16 from the field, scoring more than half of his team's points. He scored 11 points in the third quarter to help the Lions extend their lead out to 9 points.

"He's the type of player where you may do everything right, but he still might score," Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder said. "You just can't get frustrated with that because he's capable of hitting really tough shots. He did that a lot tonight. I thought our guys did a pretty good job of keeping their heads up and playing through that."