Boys Basketball: Glenbrook North passes by Highland Park

Updated: December 16, 2011 11:16PM

A smothering defense and well-coordinated offense led Glenbrook North to its second conference win of the year.

The Spartans (8-1, 2-1 CSL) passed around Highland Park’s (5-4, 2-1 CSL) zone defense to pick up the 49-36 home victory Friday night.

“Our defense was outstanding in the first half,” said GBN head coach David Weber. “I think we exhaust ourselves on defense and then our offense was bad in the second half.”

GBN opened up the match with a 12-3 lead and never looked back.

In the first half, junior guard Jason Markus led both teams with 10 points including a four point play.

The Spartans found a way around the Giants’ zone defense with its precise passing and found senior forward Mark Johnson and junior guard Kurt Karis for seven points each.

“We are shooting the ball much better right now,” said Weber. “It’s starting to come around and it’s going to take time. Our two juniors Karis and Markus are just getting the feel of it.”

The Spartans defense stifled Highland Park’s attack and led at halftime 28-8.

The third quarter brought more of the same from both teams as GBN connected on open looks and the Giants struggled to find those looks as they trailed 41-24 heading into the final period.

Highland Park did not go down without a fight as it cut the deficit to 10 midway through the fourth quarter, but that was as close as they’d ever get.

Karis and Johnson continued to carry the load that has been left by injured senior forward Andrew McAuliffe.

Karis finished with 12 points and seven rebounds while Johnson led all scorers with 13 and grabbed six boards.

“It was our second game without Andrew and I thought we had a good performance,” said Johnson. “It was nice moving the ball around, we had lots of lay-ups and I thought we did pretty well offensively.”

The Spartans limited senior guard Jake Norcia to just five points and three steals.

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