(And What’s Coming Up in December)

The Hilltoppers lived up to all the hype and more last month, not budging from the #1 spot that the team has held since the summer. The Toppers started strong, leading 35-3 at the start of the first quarter, finishing the game with a 53 point lead against crosstown rival, Glenbard South. The next night they took on the solid Glenbard North squad, and blew them out by 41 points, succeeded by a 39 point win against Glenbard East.The Toppers scored a grand total of 219 points in the Thanksgiving Tournament, while holding their opponents to just 92. 4 out of the 5 players that received the “all tournament” award were from Glenbard west (Paxton Warden, Caden Peirce, Bobby Durkin, and Braden huff). The Toppers then faced off against the stacked Dekalb team, ranked 25th in the state by the Chicago Sun Times. Some expected that this was going to be a close game, considering both teams were ranked – but no, The Hilltoppers embarrassed them, beating them 73-36. Coach Opoka recently gave the player of the month award to senior Paxton Warden. The guard stood out this month due to his ability to do it all, from rebounding, to defense, to being a lights out shooter, and much more. The upcoming month is set to be full of Great basketball. Here are my picks for the the most exciting matches coming this month to look forward to:

12/10 @ Yorkville Christian

Why look forward to it?

 The Yorkville Christian team is led by Duke commit Jaden Schutt. Anytime your team faces a Duke commit it’s very exciting, but the fact that the commit is Huff, Durkin, and Pierce’s teammate from the championship Illinois Wolves team makes this matchup even more interesting. Yorkville Christian is currently ranked at #19 in the state according to the Chicago Sun Times.

12/12 vs Hillcrest (played @ Mount Carmel)

Why look forward to it?

Hillcrest has gotten out to a hot 5-0 start, and is currently ranked at #9 in the state. This game is a part of a showcase hosted by team rose. This will be played at Mount Carmel high school and there will be great basketball being played all day there.

12/17 @ York

Why look forward to it? 

Ok… York is not a great basketball team, and probably won’t put up much of a fight against us. But, it should still be entertaining to watch our guys dominate in front of their home crowd. The heated rivalry between Glenbard West and York only grew this year with the increased trash talk over social media, and the extremely rare York football win over Glenbard West (for first time in 14 years) that only made the situation worse. It will be very fun to watch our guys beat them in front of their own home Fans as payback.