Glenbard South hustles past South Elgin

Looks like the new kids fit in pretty well.

Glenbard South boys basketball ventured into new territory when the school jumped from the Metro Suburban Conference to the Upstate Eight this season, but Tuesday's 61-54 win at South Elgin gave the Raiders more than just a sense of belonging.

It gave them sole possession of second place.

"We're proud, but we know every game is going to be a battle," said 6-foot-3 Glenbard South senior Tommy Powers, who led the Raiders with 16 points and had 4 rebounds. "We have to maintain our mentality every night."

The mentality against South Elgin was to hit the boards and play defense. Glenbard South (11-3, 6-1) grabbed 31 rebounds compared to 24 for South Elgin (12-6, 6-2), including 8 offensive rebounds.

"Glenbard South won this game with second-chance points and transition buckets, and that's a credit to them," South Elgin coach Brett Johnson said. "We did not get back on defense and we did not play good enough defense when it mattered the most."

Glenbard South's scoring was balanced between Powers, 6-4 senior Cole Hardtke (11 points, 8 rebounds), senior point guard Tavion Keith (11 points) and senior guard Kevin Enright (10 points).

Meanwhile, South Elgin relied mainly on 6-7 senior Vince Miszkiewicz. The athletic forward dunked three times en route to 18 points. He also blocked 6 shots and hauled in 15 of South Elgin's 24 rebounds.

"The big guy is going to get his," Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke said of Miszkiewicz, "so we told them at halftime we need to keep everybody under control if we're going to do anything."

Glenbard South used a 16-7 second quarter to take a 29-23 halftime lead which ballooned to 14 points on Cade Hardtke's inside bucket with 1:12 left in the third quarter.

The Storm rallied in the fourth as senior guard Drake Montgomery scored 9 of his 13 points and senior Jace Warrick scored 7 of his 14 points.

Warrick's 3-pointer with 37 seconds to play drew South Elgin within 59-54, but it wasn't enough as Glenbard South sank 9 of 12 free throws in the final 1:36 to seal the win. The Raiders made 23 of 28 free throws overall.

The Raiders held the Storm 14 points below their season average, partly by limiting them to 4-of-17 shooting from 3-point range.

"We just wanted to pride ourselves on defense, help side and make sure we kept (Montgomery) contained because he's a good player," Keith said. "We just wanted to match their physicality and play really good team defense."

The teams meet again in Glen Ellyn on Feb. 5.