Journal & Topics Media Group

GBS Appreciates Normalcy In Opening Win


Glenbrook South coach Phil Ralston coached in his 576th career game as a varsity boys basketball head coach Wednesday, Feb. 3 at the Titan Dome in Glenview, but no previous game probably ever meant as much as this one did against Hersey.

GBS went 29-5 last season with their last game played in the sectional semifinals against Evanston (March 10, 2020). Since then, they have waited and waited.

Glenbrook South won 69-49 over Hersey to start the season on a positive note, but in the end, both teams were winners. They finally got to play the game they love with their friends.

“For me, I am trying to just enjoy it,” Ralston said. “This is about the first bit of normalcy that I’ve had in my life in 11 months. Same with these kids. I am going to try and cherish the moments that we have. I am going to try and not be my normal self, who keeps himself up until 3 in the morning worrying about things. I think I am going to try to appreciate and enjoy the moments we have this year.” 

Hersey’s Ben Randall (5) tries to create some space for Ethan Roberts (4) to get past Glenbrook South’s Matt Rosenberger (22).

It was exactly 11 months to the day since Hersey last played a game (March 3, 2020) and the Huskies were grateful to everyone at Glenbrook South for putting together a safe atmosphere so they could be the first suburban Cook County teams to play this year.

“A lot of people at Glenbrook South worked really hard to put this on,” Hersey coach Austin Scott said. “We were thankful to be a part of it. I thought it was a safe environment. I felt the kids wanted to play so bad, they would follow whatever protocol you give them. There were no fans, all the pageantry was stripped (away). It shows how much the kids love the game. It was great for high school basketball tonight.”

Scott was proud of the guys battling through all the sacrifices they had to make to be safe so they could compete again. Everyone inside the Titan Dome had to wear masks, including the players. The benches were also spaced out where the stands usually are behind the scorers table. It was different outside the court, but the level of play remained the same as ever. The only difference outside of the masks was there wasn’t a tipoff to open the game.

While both teams wanted a win, at the end of the day, Wednesday was much bigger than that.

“It’s not about winning and losing, as much as it is learning about how to compete through that struggle,” Scott said. “It’s a daily battle.”

On the court, Hersey came out strong and grabbed an early 5-0 lead in the opening quarter. Glenbrook South kept trying to come back, but Hersey’s Ethan Roberts (19 points) kept extending the lead. Roberts and Andrew Wagner (13 pts.) each scored 7 points in the opening quarter. 

“Ethan is a tremendous talent,” Scott said. “He is going to be really hard to match up with and hard to guard. He has a lot going for him on both ends of the ball. That was on display tonight. He is a great player and I am lucky to coach him.”

While Hersey’s pair was strong, Glenbrook South’s Nick Martinelli (29 points, 7-of-8 FT) looked like he was trying to make up for lost time when it came to scoring.

Martinelli, the younger brother of Glenbrook South 2020 alum Dom Martinelli, did all he could to keep his team in the game in the opening quarter. He scored 11 points in the opening quarter and sparked a 12-5 to end the quarter, putting the Titans ahead 20-17. The teams swapped leads three times in the opening quarter, but the final one of the game came at the buzzer of the first quarter.

The game was tied 17-17 when a teammate dished a last second pass past Roberts and into Martinelli’s hands and he drained a 3-pointer as time expired.

Roberts helped Hersey regain the lead with 5:20 to go in the second quarter with an and-one to make it 24-22, but a 3-pointer by Glenbrook South’s Drew Maytum (6 pts.) put the Titans ahead 25-24 and they never looked back. 

GBS went on a 16-4 run starting with that 3-pointer, including two slam dunks by Martinelli.

The Titans led 38-30 at half and Martinelli accounted for half of Glenbrook South’s points with 19.

There were moments when Nick looked a lot like his brother Dom, driving to the hoop and forcing fouls.

“I am very careful to make sure the brothers aren’t compared like that,” Ralston said. “I know other people will make those comparisons. Dom is an irreplaceable player. We will never have another Dom Martinelli at Glenbrook South, but we do have a Nick Martinelli and he is pretty good too.”   

Martinelli joked it must be in his genes to make some of the moves he did to the hoop.

“I learned a lot of my game from Dom,” Nick said. ‘I tried to master everything he does because of how successful he was in high school (over 2,000 career points, most in school history). He got me in the gym a ton this offseason to work with him a lot. I am just super excited we finally got to get out here and play. It’s really a dream. I didn’t really know if we were going to play this year. So I am just super excited we got to get out on the floor.” 

Glenbrook South pulled away in the third quarter, turning a small lead into a 55-38 lead late in the third before Hersey’s Griffin Ginder (7 pts.) scored at the buzzer to make it 55-40 entering the fourth. 

The Titans closed the game with a 14-3 run before putting the bench players in.

Glenbrook South’s Cooper Noard scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half to nearly match the Huskies second half scoring total (19 points).

“I give Hersey a tremendous amount of credit,” Ralston said. “Boy, they looked so crisp right at the beginning of the game. They looked so crisp and were getting some great shots and some great looks, but our kids made adjustments and did a better job closing out on guys who were hurting us. I think any time you hold a team to 19 points in a second half, it is hard to lose many games when you do that.”

It wasn’t a perfect game for GBS, but Ralston wasn’t expecting that. He is just grateful the team got the chance to play.

“This has been such a weird year,” Ralston said. “Realistically, for some of our kids, this is the first time in 11 months they have played a game. Certainly for all our guys, it’s been 11 months since any of them have played a game like this. I expected it to look sloppy and to be like the first game before Thanksgiving and it did. But, I thought as the game went on our kids got a little bit better. We played around with a few different lineups to see what works.”

Glenbrook South (1-0) plays Lake Forest (Friday, Feb. 5) and Maine East (Saturday, Feb. 6) to close out the first week of the season. Up next, Hersey (0-1) plays at Wheeling Saturday. 

 

Scoring:

Glenbrook South: Nick Martinelli (29 points), Cooper Noard (22), Drew Maytum (6), Matt Rosenberger (5), Brandon Ballarini (5), Spencer Brown (2)

Hersey: Ethan Roberts (19), Andrew Wagner (13), Griffin Ginder (7), Ben Randall (6), Jimmy Makuh (2), Drew Zagorski (2)

 

Score by Quarter:

GBS: 20-18-17-14 — 69

Hersey: 17-13-10-9 — 49

Support local news by subscribing to the Journal & Topics in print or online.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.