Dragicevich leads Glenbrook North

Following one of his best halves of basketball for the season, Glenbrook North’s Alex Dragicevich didn’t want to sit back and relax. Instead, Dragicevich asked for the key to the gym.

The Spartans senior may have wanted to work on his jump shot, but his ability to score in the lane needed no work following No.11 Glenbrook North’s 55-44 nonconference victory over Conant on Saturday evening. The Notre Dame-bound forward finished with 23 points, six rebounds and four assists.

“When they were pressing so much, there were more opportunities to get to the rim,” Dragicevich said. “I kind of took it upon myself to see what I could do. I haven’t been shooting the ball very well, so I have to get that back to keep the defense honest.”

Using dunks and lay-ins, as well as five free throws, Dragicevich scored 15 of his points in the second half, accounting for more than two-thirds of the Spartans points over the final 16 minutes. This was after Glenbrook North jumped out to a 33-11 halftime lead, thanks to a 22-4 run.

“We haven’t been holding leads recently,” Dragicevich said. “We have to be stronger with the ball. It was like ‘here we go again’, so it was something we have to learn.”

The Spartans also got big contributions from Austin Weber, who scored 13 points, and Peter Szostak, who scored six points but dominated the lane with 11 rebounds. Glenbrook North coach Dave Weber was impressed with his center’s performance.

“Peter is very stable for us, he understands how to run our system, he rebounds,” Weber said. “Andrew McAluffe is the other big kid, and they’re going to be open, because Dragicevich gets into the lane so well. So those two guys really need to elevate their game as we go down to the end of the season.”

Conant (12-9) was led by Christian Sotos, who scored 19 points. The Cougars used a 14-4 fourth-quarter run to get back in the game, but could never come closer to being nine points down.

“This game for us, the motivation was to get a high seed in sectionals,” Weber said. “It comes out next week, and we needed that win to maybe get a one-seed in our sectional.”