For those opponents who don’t know it yet, Glenbard West junior guard Nina Hendricksen is left-handed.

And yes, she loves to drive to the basket with her left hand, regardless of who is in the way.

“I do it any chance I get,” Hendricksen said. “It’s my favorite thing to do.”

Those who fail to stop Hendricksen’s drives could find themselves, well, left behind. That’s what happened to Lyons on Friday night.

Hendricksen relentlessly attacked the rim and scored a career-high 19 points to go with eight rebounds as the visiting Hilltoppers knocked off the Lions 60-52 in a key West Suburban Conference Silver Division game.

Hendricksen’s contested shots didn’t always go in but her efforts had a huge impact. She made 4 of 14 shots but went 10 of 13 from the free-throw line.

“I feel like they gave me my left hand the whole game,” Hendricksen said. “They had a lot of good defenders, but I just was pushing and just kept going, just making things happen.”

Hendricksen did just that despite having to guard LT star Emma O’Brien, who had a monster game with 30 points, eight rebounds, five steals, four assists and four blocks.

But the Hilltoppers (11-1, 6-0) did a good job of shutting down O’Brien’s teammates. Senior Gwen Smith scored 11 points for the Lions (10-2, 3-2), but the rest of the team combined for just 10 points.

“We asked Nina to take a big assignment defensively,” Glenbard West coach Kristi Faulkner said. “Emma O’Brien is a great player and finished with a great game, so a lot of respect for her and her game.

“But Nina plays hard all the time and never stops. And she does whatever you ask of her, so it’s really fun to watch her and fun to coach her.”

Hendricksen made four free throws during an opening 7-0 run by the Hilltoppers. The Lions answered by scoring eight straight points and it was a back-and-forth tussle until the third quarter, during which Hendricksen tallied nine points.

Anna Bigenwald’s layup gave the Lions their largest lead, 34-31, at the 5:35 mark of the third quarter. Hendricksen responded with a drive that resulted in a three-point play which tied the game.

Junior forward Ellie Noble, who finished with 19 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, followed with back-to-back baskets and then fed Katie Meehan for a layup and a 40-34 lead.

The Cornell-bound O’Brien scored on a putback, but Hendricksen answered with a 3-pointer and a free throw as the Hilltoppers outscored the Lions 17-8 in the period to take a 44-36 lead.

“Usually this year we have struggled with our third quarters,” Hendricksen said. “So lately in practice we’ve been talking about how we need to be ready for the third quarter, because that’s our worst quarter out of all of them.

“I think we really improved this third quarter. We had a big motive to get a stop in the third quarter.”

The Hilltoppers had a hard time stopping O’Brien, who fell one point shy of tying her career high in points, but they stopped everyone else. O’Brien scored 10 points in the fourth quarter but the Lions never got closer than 7 points in the final 6 minutes.

“They just executed their stuff really well,” O’Brien said. “They were tuned in.

“They knew exactly what they wanted to do and they knew exactly our game and what we wanted to do. They were shutting us down and I feel like we just didn’t make the adjustments that we needed to make, but they played a really good game and they took us out of our rhythm a lot.”

Faulkner was pleased with her team’s balanced scoring, which saw Meehan tally 11 points and Lily Hubbuch nine points. Foul trouble and inexperience hindered the Lions.

“They’re always a well-coached team and they’re making sure they’re at help-side so they can defend our driving,” LT coach Meghan Hutchens said. “We’ve got two freshmen and a sophomore on the floor, and so when we look at our youth, we have to learn to execute what we’re asking them to execute. That’s been our downfall at times.”