Apparently, York hasn’t heard the adage that it’s tough to beat the same team three times in one season.

The Dukes, which had already earned two wins over Glenbard West in West Suburban Silver play, used a crushing defensive effort to score a 49-33 Class 4A Regional title victory Friday in Glen Ellyn.

York broke open a close game after halftime, outscoring the Hilltoppers 18-3 in the third quarter en route to the win.

“Defense wins championships,” said York coach Mike Dunn. “Coming in here for a third time, we knew it was going to be difficult. (The Hilltoppers) are very well-coached, but our players and our seniors stepped up and made plays.”

At halftime Dunn advised his players to just “keep doing what we do.”

“It’s why we’re 29-4 right now,” the coach said. “We just do what we do, take care of the basketball and rebound. I couldn’t be prouder of this group. Nobody gave us a chance in the beginning of the season, nobody thought we could do any of this.”

The Dukes outrebounded Glenbard West 34-20, with 6-foot-6 senior Costa Kampas coming off the bench to lead the team with 11 rebounds.

“We really pride ourselves on rebounding,” Kampas said. “Just be physical, stay low and explode to the backboard.”

Kampas acknowledged that prior to the contest he knew it was going to be a tough task to beat the Hilltoppers for a third time.

“They’re a well-coached team, an in-conference opponent, and we just put our heads down and came out with a win,” he said. “The brotherhood we have on this team is awesome to see.”

Junior Joseph Lubbe led York with 19 points, while senior Josh Abushanab had 12 for Glenbard West.

“We turned the basketball over way too many times tonight,” Hilltoppers coach Jason Opoka said. “And the third quarter wasn’t fantastic for us. (The Dukes) started with a 4-0 run off of two of our turnovers, but hats off to York. They had a great game plan and got us flustered.

“We had some shots early and didn’t capitalize, and on a Friday night against a conference team for a third time, it’s going to be a fist fight. They came up victorious.”

York, the No. 2 seed in the Bartlett sectional, took a 21-15 advantage into halftime after a buzzer-beating layup from Kampas.

Then the Dukes broke the game open with a run in the third quarter, and after a 3 from Lubbe, they led 38-18 with 3:24 remaining in the period.

York led by as many as 22 in the fourth quarter, but Glenbard West made things interesting by cutting the deficit to 40-27 after a 3-pointer by senior Jacob Harvanek (12 points) with 2:32 left. Overall, though, it was a tough night from behind the arc for the Hilltoppers. They finished just 6-of-26 from 3-point land.

The Dukes closed out the game at the free-throw line. Junior Nathan Poku tallied 12 points for York, while teammate Will O’Leary finished with 7.

“Feels amazing,” Poku said of the regional title win. “Especially coming at our rival, GW. We just played (great) defense, and that’s what we’ve been doing all year.”

Dukes 6-9 senior Hunter Stepanich pitched in with 4 points and 6 rebounds.

“We come in to every game with the same mentality,” Stepanich said. “Same thing as every game, we just had a sense of urgency.”