Boys Basketball: GBN Back to Winning Ways Against Highland Park

Glenbrook North has been going through a rough patch, but it didn’t take long for them to take command against Highland Park.

Thanks to a 13-0 run in the first half, the Spartans topped the Giants 53-35 Friday night in Northbrook to snap a three-game losing skid.

Spartan senior guard Tommy Hanrahan scored 17 points, including five three-pointers, to lead all scorers.

The first time these two teams met, the Giants controlled the tempo in a 40-27 loss. This time around GBN coach David Weber said he wanted his team to play fast. A full court press in the first quarter seemed to catch Highland Park by surprise and GBN took a 22-5 lead in the second quarter.

“We want to speed them up,” Hanrahan said. “We want to get them uncomfortable. I think that’s what we did. We forced a lot of turnovers.”

Unfortunately for the Spartans, the start of the second half has been a weak spot lately. The Spartans blew halftime leads in losses   during the losing streak. The Giants continued the trend with a strong run in the third quarter.

“We’ve had a lot of starts like that,” Weber said. “We’ve lost a lot of leads like that. It’s kind of the way we are this year. We come out of halftime, I’m not sure what it is, and we throw it away on the first possession, we give up an easy shot. The other team gets momentum and we fall apart.”

Highland Park got within six after trailing 32-17 at halftime. They had the ball down 36-30 to start the fourth quarter, but missed a three and GBN put the game out of reach with a 9-0 run on a three by Joe Prince (10 points) and a pair of treys by Hanrahan.

The shooters had good looks most of the game thanks to strong inside play early from center Peter Szostak (nine points and six rebounds). Szostak scored seven in the first quarter, which opened the guards up on the perimeter.

“We wanted to get it inside early to try to establish the game inside,” Szostak said. “They doubled down low more and tried to pack it inside more and we were able to hit some shots. Our focus in a lot of games is to try to go inside first. We try to go inside-out.“

The balance was key for a team that is still trying to find an identity offensively. With three true centers and guards that like to shoot from the outside, the Spartans have had a hard time figuring out when to shoot and when to feed the big men.

Weber tried to switch things up in practice to turn it around.

“They fall in love with the three because it’s open,” he said. “The week before we didn’t let them take a shot until they had a post touch in practice and I think it made us too tentative. We did not play well. I don’t think you can do that to high school kids.”

He also added that the game plan didn’t change Friday, his team just executed better.

The win keeps the Spartans (15-5, 6-2) tied atop the Central Suburban League North standings with Niles North. Saturday night they host Warren, an area ranked team that is likely the toughest team left on GBN’s regular season schedule.