Glenbard South continues mastery of Burlington Central
When the 2020 boys basketball postseason pairings roll out next February, you can't blame Burlington Central for looking at the brackets and hoping Glenbard South is as far away from its draw as possible.
The Rockets and Raiders met in front of a loud and nearly packed Marengo gym Friday night for a Class 3A sectional championship, just like the schools did playing for regional titles in 2016 and 2017.
Both of those years Burlington Central entered as the No. 1 seed, and both times the Raiders “surprised” them with 3- and 10-point victories.
Surprised is in quotes only because the Rockets were never really surprised. They know how good Glenbard South is.
History repeated itself Friday. The only difference this time was Glenbard South came in as the No. 1 seed, but the rest took on a familiar tone — tight game, high intensity, filled with big plays ... and, most importantly, ending in another Raiders win.
This time it was 42-38, a game Burlington Central battled hard to dig out of a 10-0 hole in the first seven minutes. The Rockets finally caught and passed the Raiders early in the fourth quarter only to go through a game-deciding five-minute drought down the stretch.
Another postseason, another loss to Glenbard South.
“They are just big, strong and physical all three years,” Rockets coach Brett Porto said. “In every game we've played them their lineups are bigger, stronger.
“Whether it's them, Boylan or whoever you lose to at the end it never feels good. We're always close. I feel like the physicality sometimes in these games causes us issues. And then you add their length to it which they've had all three years, whether it was the Bair brothers (Billy and Charlie) or this group that they have. Just that extra length, the stuff that doesn't show up in the stats — challenging shots and making you work your offense a foot further than you want to, that's what they're really good at.”
For good measure, Glenbard South's girls team also got in the act this year. On their way to finishing second in the Class 3A state tournament, the Raiders came from behind in the fourth quarter to beat Burlington Central in the regional finals.
For the Raider boys, now 25-6 with the school's first sectional title since 2000, they know all of the wins over Burlington have been well-earned.
“I'll be honest with you, I don't like seeing them either,” Raiders coach Wade Hardtke said. “So far we've been able to come out on the good side for us. You feel for them. All three of them have come down to the wire. It's a credit to coach Porto and the effort from his guys.”
Burlington Central will have something else in common with Glenbard South starting next year. The Rockets move to the Fox Valley Conference where they will face life as the smallest school in a conference filled with 4A opponents.
That's just what Glenbard South did this year in the Upstate Eight. Playing schools like West Aurora and South Elgin twice certainly had the Raiders ready for anything they'll see in the Class 3A postseason.
“I feel it does help us,” said center Ryan Harrington, who finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds Friday. “It gives us a lot of preparation. We have experience going into the playoffs.”
That experience will come in handy Tuesday when the Raiders play Peoria Manual in the supersectional at NIU.
“Coming in we thought we'd be battle tested for the tournament. The question was if we'd be able to still walk into the tournament,” Hardtke said of injuries the Raiders overcame.
“That was a gauntlet. Everybody we play all season long is twice our size. But that schedule got us ready. That's what we talked about before the tournament. There's nothing we've seen that from a big interior game to guard oriented to a zone to a man, I felt we'd been tested with everything. I think it did get us ready.”
Friday marked the Rockets' second straight loss in the sectional finals, the 4-point margin following a 2-point heartbreaker to Boylan last year.
This year's team only returned one starter, yet still finished 26-9 with another conference and regional championship.
“Last year I felt that group with what we had coming back could get to that point,” Porto said of the sectional final. “This year I thought we would compete in conference, we had a chance to win 20 games and win a regional. I didn't think we'd be able to put it together and get to this point again. It was a roller coaster at times but we grinded, we worked, we really improved and I hope they can look back at some good memories of this run.”
That one returning starter, Patrick Mayfield, scored 10 points Friday to finish with 1,614 points — just a tick behind former teammate Zach Schutta's school record of 1,652. Kevin Enright made life difficult for him Friday.
“I played 32 minutes every single game, my body is just so tired,” said Mayfield, who said he sprained his foot Tuesday in the semifinal win over Johnsburg.
“Super good year. Nobody thought we'd be this good. They thought we'd be .500. Nobody thought we'd make it this far or have this record. It was a really fun season.”
The Rockets started a pair of juniors — Jake Lenschow and Josh Hudgens — on Friday, plus freshman Zac Schmidt. All three made their share of clutch plays in the loss.
That group will be the core of next year's team, one with the challenge of joining the FVC.
And perhaps hoping they don't see Glenbard South again in the postseason.
“We just have to focus on the little things,” Lenschow said. “Once you see the seniors go out like that you don't want to end the same way. I'm happy with the season we had.
“We've been up and down all year. It's good to end on a high note. It's good we went out playing hard. We just couldn't get some shots. They just made more plays than us tonight.”