Boys Basketball: Elmwood Park starts hot, turns cold in loss to Glenbard South

Updated: February 3, 2012 11:24PM

Glenbard South didn’t let an early nine-point deficit stop it from running all over host Elmwood Park in a 54-38 Metro Suburban Conference victory Friday night.

Raiders forward Dusko Despot (game-high 17 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks) helped Glenbard South (10-9, 6-3) come back with 12 first-half points as it went on a 23-4 run after Elmwood Park (10-9, 2-6) jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the first 2 minutes, 15 seconds of the first quarter on a pair of three-pointers by Tigers senior Julian Molinas (team-high 14 points, 7 rebounds) and another by senior David Lipiszko (3 steals).

But the usually hot-shooting Tigers turned to ice under the Raiders’ defensive pressure, while the offense took over in the paint and it was clear sailing after an 11-11 tie turned into a 29-18 lead at halftime.

“They (Elmwood Park) shoot the ball very well, and they came out and hit three big shots right away,” Glenbard coach Wade Hardtke said. “It took us awhile to establish our inside game, but once we finally did it got us back in the ballgame and we were able to maintain control of the outside and inside from there on out.

“We’re still in the thick of the conference race, so coming into Elmwood Park is a tough road game and you know they’re going to shoot the ball well and play hard so this was a big win for us. Now we’ve got Ridgewood and Riverside-Brookfield coming up at our place so we’ll see what shakes out.”

After the first quarter tie, the Raiders went on a 18-5 run behind Despot’s seven points and four each by seniors Matt Jeske (6 points, 4 rebounds) and Jon Berrospi (10 points, 5 rebounds).

The Raiders had eight players contribute points, including seniors Carl Lane with seven and Wesley Sanders with six. Ryan Childs chipped in four off the bench.

“We’re a better shooting team that that,” Elmwood Park coach Mike Wasielewski said. “We shoot about 40 percent from three (point range). We’ve hit a million threes this year. We showed it in the first quarter but we couldn’t continue and I think the kids started to press.

“Thirty-eight points is unacceptable for a varsity team,” he added. “If you had told me earlier today that Glenbard South was going to score 54 points, I would have said, ‘Awesome, we’ve got this game.’ But we shot poorly — on our home court, too. Our defense was great. We played a good zone against them because they have more size than we do, and it worked well. Unfortunately, our shots just weren’t falling.”

Senior Marcellus Hunter came off the bench and scored 10 points, hauled in six rebounds and had three steals for Elmwood Park, while senior Anthony Santiago chipped in four points and Alec Gomez added three.

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