Spartans' Season Ends as Rival Vikings Claim Regional Title

With a 69-65 win in the schools' decisive third meeting this year, the fourth-seeded Niles North Vikings (22-6) not only claimed the IHSA Class 4A Northbrook Regional Championship on Friday night, they also ended No. 5 Glenbrook North's season in the process.

"This is probably our kids' first experience even seeing this happen," Vikings' head coach Glenn Olson said as his team cut down the nets on GBN's home court. "We're excited - I'm very excited for them;" Niles North advances to play No. 1 seed Notre Dame in Tuesday's New Trier Sectional Semifinal.

Vikings senior and All-Area selection Abdel Nader, who dropped 49 points in a (in Northbrook), scored a game-high 36 points to go along with seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks; Nader alone outscored the Spartans in the second quarter, 13-11, allowing Niles North to take a 33-20 lead into halftime.

"We threw everything we had at him and we tried everybody - point guards, big guys, in-between guys," said Spartans head coach Dave Weber. "We knew he was going right every time and we practiced guarding against it, but he's so good that you can't stop it. You can be as good as you want to be and jump on his right hand but you can't stop it. It was physically impossible for our players to stop it."

Despite trailing by double-digits for the majority of the second half, Glenbrook North put together an 11-2 run spanning from the end of the third quarter into the fourth, and eventually closed the Vikings' gap to three-points with just over one minute to play. However, a late Spartans turnover gave the ball back to Niles North and on the ensuing inbounds play, Nader broke loose, caught a perfect pass from Andrew Shaw and threw down a monstrous one-handed slam to give the Vikings' a safe two-possession lead.

"They couldn't guard me so I knew that I had to take over in order to win the game," Nader said with a smile. "Once I caught that pass, I knew it was over."

"He's one of the greatest players in the state," added Vikings' sophomore Malachi Nix (eight-points). "Big players step up in big games and he stepped up big time."

With GBN star sophomore (two-points) being hounded by Nader and company in the paint, senior co-captain Peter Szostak put the Spartans on his shoulders with the help of junior Joe Prince. Szostak  tallied a double-double, finishing with 19 points and 11 rebounds while Prince led the Spartans (19-9) with 21 points and five assists.

"Our game is to get the ball inside and that was impossible tonight. The pressure they put on our guards made it extremely hard and it hurt us early on," said Weber. "Peter played like a senior that did not want to play his last game - I was really proud of him."

"I'm obviously disappointed that our season is over," a quiet Szostak said after the game. "But we have a great [basketball] tradition here. Anytime you can suit up in a GBN jersey you have to play as hard as you can and I think our four seniors did a good job of showing that and passing it along to the younger guys."

While it may not be easy to see right away, the Spartans have nothing to hang their heads about. GBN's four seniors, Szostak, co-captain Jordan Liss, Tommy Hanrahan and Tommy Fernitz, will take with them multiple CSL North titles, two regional titles, a sectional championship and a consolation championship from this year's 50th Annual Proviso West Holiday Tournament.

"There is a lot to be proud of and there are no other people I'd rather go out with than the guys on this team," said Liss. "I'm proud to have been able to play in this program."