It’s a good thing Glenville-Emmons boys’ basketball head coach Dan Frederickson has a stingy defense to rely upon when his offense sputters like it did Tuesday against Grand Meadow in Glenville.

All signs pointed to a blowout victory for the Glenville-Emmons boys’ basketball team early in the first half but the Wolverines slowed down on offense and Grand Meadow made the second half interesting.

Though the offense wavered for Glenville-Emmons the defense remained resolute as the Wolverines picked up a 42-36 victory over the Superlarks Tuesday in Glenville.

That defense is on pace to set a school record in scoring defense, having given up an average of 49 points per game this season, Frederickson said.

“Control the things that you can control and they’ve bought into that they can control defense, they can control their effort level,” he said.

The Wolverines (16-6, 10-5) held an opponent to less than 40 points for the fifth time en route to winning their fifth consecutive game.

The Glenville-Emmons defense held Grand Meadow without a field goal for the first 7 minutes, 50 seconds.

After Tyler Woodside made a layup the Wolverines held a 13-point advantage, but the Superlarks closed the half with a 9-5 run to make it a nine-point game.

Grand Meadow rolled that momentum into the second half and got to as close as five with 2:20 left to play.

Andrew Lau hit a free throw and Landon Hall hit a pair of free throws to build the lead back.

Glenville-Emmons controlled the glass from the beginning and its advantage helped late in the game.

Lau missed a free throw with a little more than a minute to play but Jon Mittag grabbed the rebound to keep the Wolverines in front Lau got fouled again and sank one of his attempts.

Of course that pesky defense did its job. Woodside got a steal with 36 seconds left and found Peter Hansen open, who was immediately fouled and sank both his free throws to give Glenville-Emmons a 10-point advantage.

The Wolverines forced 13 turnovers, shut down passing lanes and controlled the interior.

Jon Mittag and Woodside led Glenville-Emmons with nine points each and Hansen finished with six points.

The Wolverines were outscored 20-17 in the second half and shot a low percentage from the field while the Superlarks went on an 8-0 run early in the second half.

“The last couple of games the offense has been … I don’t know,” Frederickson said. “These kids see that zone a lot, it’s just we need to be more efficient against it.”

Glenville-Emmons closes the regular season Thursday against Le Roy-Ostrander in Le Roy.

Glenville-Emmons 42, Grand Meadow 36

Grand Meadow 16 20 — 36

Glenville-Emmons 25 17 — 42

Grand Meadow scoring: Michael Gehling 11, Killian Smith 10, Zac Finley 5, Ethan Yost 4, Dezmon Johnson 3, Aveonce Rove 3.

Glenville-Emmons scoring: Tyler Woodside 9, Jon Mittag 9, Peter Hansen 6, Andrew Lau 5, Derek Sanderson 5, Michael Adams 4, Michael Thofson 2, Landon Hall 2.