Girls basketball: Third win over Joliet Central propels Joliet West into regional title game

BRADLEY – Last week, the Joliet Central and Joliet West girls basketball teams ended the regular season playing each other.

On Monday evening, the two opened the postseason by playing each other.

It was a whole different game than the previous two, but in the end, the result was the same.

For the third time Joliet West came out victorious, this time with a 40-28 win in the opening semifinal of the Class 4A Bradley-Bourbonnais Regional.

The Tigers (20-11) on Thursday will play United Township, a 52-41 winner over the host Boilermakers in Monday’s second game, for the regional championship. Joliet West will be bidding for its third straight regional title.

“I knew it would be a whole different game. They put their two best players on our two best players,“ Tigers coach John Placher said of the Steelmen matching up forwards Joyce Tua-Link and Aubrey Weems on Maziah Shelton and Destiny McNair. “Shelton has been averaging 18 points and 12 rebounds and wasn’t in double digits.

“It was really a tough game, and give credit to Joliet Central.”

Sophomore guard Makayla Chism led Joliet West with 14 points. McNair, a senior guard, finished with 12 points. Shelton, a junior forward, was limited to nine points but had a game-high 17 rebounds.

Tua-Link, a senior, led the Steelmen (10-20) with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Guard Elliana Fowler, one of four Steelmen freshmen, added eight points.

“Joliet Central came out and didn’t want me to score 31 points as I did in our game last week,“ McNair said. “They played hard, they did a good job, and they definitely didn’t want their season to end.

“We were with them on the weekend, and we knew we couldn’t expect to come out and beat them by 30 again.”

The Tigers did not, as Weems opened the scoring on a short jumper. The first quarter was a slugfest as the teams combined for as many turnovers as they did points. Joliet Central led 8-6 after one quarter.

Trailing 11-8, Joliet West appeared to get its offense in gear with a 13-2 burst in less than two minutes. McNair started the spurt that gave the Tigers the lead for good with five straight points. Shelton capped it on a three-point play with 4:37 left in the second quarter for a 21-13 advantage. It was 23-15 at halftime.

The third quarter was more of the same, and Joliet West led 27-18 after three. Fowler, who scored six points in the fourth quarter, twice pulled the Steelmen within five points. The last time came with 5:22 to play, but they only scored two points the rest of the way.

Junior forward Brooke Schwall (four points, 11 rebounds) had a basket that started a 6-0 run. Three Tigers scored in the stretch, which took just over a minute and gave them a 37-26 lead with 3:41 remaining.

“I thought Ashlei [Thomas] stepped up and gave us some key minutes off the bench,” Placher said of the senior guard. “We switched to a 1-3-1 defense down the stretch, and any time you hold a team to 28 points, you are doing a good job on defense.”

The Steelmen played good defense as well, but missed too many shots and had 24 turnovers.

“We have the toughest kids, and they wanted to win,” Joliet Central coach Laura Brumfiel said. “They executed the game plan and were determined. I couldn’t be any prouder of them. We just couldn’t convert and get our shots to fall.”

Joliet Central won a regional title and had 24 victories in 2019. But the Steelmen struggled at times this season. There is high hope for the future, however.

“We had four freshmen on the varsity, along with a sophomore and three juniors,” Brumfiel said. “We will miss the leadership of our four seniors, but the future is bright.”

For the Tigers, the future is ahead of them in the regional title game.

“We just have to come out and play like our season is on the line,” McNair said of Thursday night. “We can’t come out and play lackadaisical.”