Boys Basketball: Hinsdale Central beats Glenbard West for 20th straight win, clinches first WSC Silver outright title since 2015

HINSDALE – For the first time since 2015, the Hinsdale Central boys basketball team is the outright winner of the West Suburban Silver.

And Red Devils’ senior point guard Evan Phillips couldn’t feel better about it.

You’ll have to pardon the pun. Phillips was battling a nasty case of bronchitis Tuesday as he piloted his team’s offense to a 54-34 victory over Glenbard West, its 20th straight victory.

“I’m feeling much better,” said Phillips with a smile post-game. So what’s it like to have the keys to a powerful senior-laden offense that includes Ben Oosterbaan (18 points) and Emerson Eck (14).”

“It’s awesome,” Phillips said. “I’ve been playing with these guys forever. We’ve got a ton of chemistry together, and got a lot of confidence bringing the ball up with whoever I pass to, whoever the open man is.

“It’s a pleasure playing with these guys.”

Oosterbaan, for one, realizes he can’t score 18 without his point guard putting him in a position to succeed.

“He’s the epitome of what a glue guy means,” Oosterbaan said of Phillips. “All good programs really have a glue guy that keeps the team together. He plays all 32 minutes with bronchitis … that just shows how tough he is.”

Phillips, of course, can’t do it alone, which is why Eck’s three 3-pointers in the third quarter helped put some distance between the Red Devils (28-3 overall and 11-1 in league) and pesky Glenbard West, which fell to 18-11 and finished 7-5 in conference.

Oosterbaan put his mark on the contest by scoring six in a 10-0 run early in the fourth quarter that put the game away. He capped that spurt with a layup via an offensive rebound by senior Billy Cernugel.

“It’s a very competitive league,” Hinsdale Central coach Nick Latorre said. “I’m really proud of our guys, they battled and it’s been a real pleasure working with this group.”

Let’s not forget the Hilltoppers and their persnickety defense that gave them a 7-5 lead after a quarter. All seven points were scored by senior guard Benji Zander, who added five more in the second quarter, accounting for every point scored by Glenbard West in the first half.

“We had the mindset to just attack them,” Zander said. “We ran a different defense at the start to throw them off.”

Zander’s 12 led the Hilltoppers, but no other player scored more than three.

“Benji’s our leader,” Glenbard West coach Jason Opoka said. “He’s a senior and he’s done a great job of facilitating our offense and scoring when we need him to. We were lucky to have him in the first half.”