Brown's big double-double helps Glenbard South down Glenbard East
With a win earlier this year against a young Glenbard East squad, host Glenbard South and senior Jalen Brown took to the court Friday night with plenty of confidence.
After one quarter of play - when the Rams were held to just 1 point - the confidence grew and never really faltered along the way as the Raiders prevailed 62-41, with Brown scoring 22 points and pulling in 18 rebounds.
"That was one of the things that came to us. We came to the conclusion that they're a young team and we could take advantage of that because they might not have as much chemistry as us," said Brown, who is also a stalwart on the Glenbard South football team. "But if we just locked in defensively we could have shut that team out."
The Raiders (10-7, 5-4) held Glenbard East without a field goal in the first quarter and led 11-1 as Mitch Erickson knocked down a 3-pointer and Brown had a basket and the first 6 of his 18 boards on the night. The lead grew to 29-14 at the half as Brown and Masroor Sahi each tallied 7 points through two quarters and the Rams had 9 turnovers.
Glenbard East entered the game off an impressive defeat of Bartlett on Tuesday, but just couldn't match up with the Raiders' size and experience.
"The difference is we're playing with freshmen and sophomores, a few juniors, and they're playing with juniors and seniors, one of whom is a Division I football player, so we're just physically overwhelmed," Rams coach Eric Kelly said after his team dropped to 5-13, 4-5 on the year. "Then it didn't help that we start the game like 0-for-9 or 0-for-10 and they get off to an 11-1 start. So, it doesn't help to spot them a lead in their gym in a game like this. It just doesn't help."
It didn't help the visitors any that Brown seemed determined to grab every rebound he was close to, finishing with 8 offensive rebounds and coming within two total boards of his season high of 20.
"He goes and gets it. There's no doubt he goes and gets it," Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke said of his forward.
Harper Bryan also helped the Raiders control the boards as he finished with 11 points and 7 rebounds off the bench. Sahi added 10 points and D'Manuel Payton chipped in with 4 steals and 4 assists.
"We've been playing really well here as of late. Coming out of Christmas we've kind of turned the corner a bit. Now we just want to try and continue to build and get to playing our best basketball at the end of the year," Hardtke said.
For the Rams, sophomore Teryn Hatter led the way with 9 points and 5 steals and Aleks Jajic had 8 points and 5 rebounds before fouling out.