Glenbard West starts holiday tournament with win vs. Hoffman Estates

Glenbard West showed no signs of putting together a memorable outing on offense or defense in the first four minutes Saturday.

Playing the final of four games on the first day of the 17th annual Glenbard West Holiday Classic, the Hilltoppers missed their first four shots and committed four turnovers in their opening six possessions.

Carter Lindstrom broke the drought by canning a 3-pointer to open the scoring for the Hilltoppers, igniting a solid outing on both ends in a 49-18 rout of Hoffman Estates.

For their effort the Hilltoppers get three days off practice, according to Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder, before hosting Addison Trail at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday.

"We missed a few shots early that we normally make, but we created some turnovers with our defense," Hoder said. "That helped us get some momentum."

Glenbard West senior Evan Taylor, an SIU recruit, scored a game-high 16 points and added 3 blocks. Caden Phillips and Griffin Foster each scored 8 points for Glenbard West.

"My mindset tonight was to get everybody involved because everyone is shooting really well lately," Taylor said. "When I'm open, I was still aggressive, but I was happy with how the team played. We played really well today, and I was excited how we did. We did really well in our zone and executed our offense."

Hoffman Estates (4-8) was paced by senior guard Marquez Woodard's 6 points on two 3-pointers.

Leading 13-11 early in the second quarter, the Hilltoppers broke open the game with a 28-1 run that ended with Phillips' basket late in the third.

The Hilltoppers' pressure defense forced 13 turnovers and limited the Hawks to 0-for-15 shooting during the game-turning run. The 6-foot-6 Taylor sparked the run with four straight points, waking up the crowd with a breakaway dunk for a 17-11 with 6:13 left until halftime. Foster opened up the third quarter with a 3 that was followed by two straight baskets from Taylor to expand the lead to 39-12. The Hawks finished with just 6 field goals and scored 10 points in the final three quarters.

"We really try to focus on our rebounding and the intangibles like hustle points," Hoder said. "We got some rebounds and that helped our spurt. We will take three days off and will get ready to play some tough teams."