Glenbrook South rains threes in 64-46 victory over Maine South
The roughly 40 fans in attendance at Glenbrook South’s game against Maine South at the Titan Dome only saw one layup from the home team in the first quarter.
What they also witnessed was Glenbrook South making five three-pointers in the first eight minutes of play.
The Titans were just getting started.
Glenbrook South went on to make 12 total triples in a 64-46 victory over Maine South, improving its record to 6-0 on the season. On Friday night, the Titans made eight 3-pointers in a 55-33 win.
Glenbrook South junior Nick Martinelli credited the team’s defense for the success they have had on offense.
“Each person just doing their job, being on the help side and guarding their own man — that’s all we basically do in practice,” Martinelli said. “We’ve had long, boring practices just working on defense and being in the right spot. In the game it works and it helps and it makes the game a lot more fun.”
Glenbrook South coach Phil Ralston said that the practices may be “monotonous” at times, but Ralston likes to put his players in game-like situations that will create “game-ready shooters” instead of “drive-way shooters.”
One of those “game-ready shooters” is junior guard Cooper Noard, who had 10 total triples in home-away series with the Hawks.
“Anytime you got a really good point guard, you got a shot at being really good as a team,” Ralston said. “When you got a point guard that can also score, that opens up your game to a completely new level. Teams are focused, five guys on him. A lot of our actions are trying to free him up for open looks. But the other aspect of it is that our offense is also designed to get other people in positions where they are going to get open looks too. The more teams have to focus on some other guys it frees up Cooper even more.”
Martinelli is one of the players that benefits from the attraction Cooper creates. Martinelli and Noard tied for a team-high 18 points.
Glenbrook South outscored Maine South 21-10 in the third quarter to give the Titans a 62-31 lead heading into the final frame, essentially putting the game out of reach. Ralston put in his bench with about 5:40 left in the game, and the backups played a majority of the fourth quarter.
Maine South, now 4-2 overall, had a brief lead in the game, when the Hawks were leading 9-6 with 4:46 left in the first quarter. Maine South coach Tony Lavorato knew this second game against Glenbrook South would be a challenge, especially since starter Ryan Leyden was injured in the first quarter of Friday’s game.
“We don’t get a chance to practice with the kids who will be replacing him, so we are kind of doing things on the fly and through walk-throughs,” Lavorato said. “Were we leg weary? I don’t know, but the bottom line is they also played four games. They did a much better job than we did finishing the week strong. We are going to learn and get better and get stronger. That’s kind of what it’s about.”
Ralston anticipated Maine South would make some adjustments from the previous matchup, so Glenbrook South countered with their own changes, and also knocked down shots from long range.
“We tweaked some aspects of our offense that we expected them to do against us, and they worked,” Ralston said. “Then we had all the different kids that hit threes … that opens things up.”
Other Game Notes
- Glenbrook South senior forward Justin Leszynski committed to MIT on Friday, Feb. 12.
- Glenbrook South junior wing Nick Marinelli received his first D-I offer Saturday, from St. Thomas.
- Sean Gallery led the Maine South with 17 points, five rebounds, and three assists.
- Marko Anderson had eight points and eight rebounds for Maine South.