Joliet West shakes off slow start to down Plainfield South on the road

PLAINFIELD — The first half score of Friday night’s game between Joliet West and Plainfield South was more reminiscent of a football game than a boys basketball contest. Heck, the first quarter the two teams combined for a touchdown and an extra point.

While the second half wasn’t exactly a firework show either, things picked up for both teams, but a little more so for the Tigers. They made the short trip back to Joliet with a 63-35 win.

Joliet West (5-1) was stuck in a defensive slugfest early on. More than halfway through the opening period both teams had only made one basket a piece and the quarter ended with West ahead just 5-2. Things didn’t pick up all that much in the second with the Tigers in front just 13-11. A 25-point third quarter by West gave them a sizable cushion that they were able to hold onto for the victory.

“We just asked the team to value the basketball (at halftime),” Joliet West coach Jeremy Krieger said. “It’s a credit to (Plainfield South) coach (Jeff) Howard and their team to limit possessions to a half court game. Their zone defense and the way it shifts, rotates and everything caused a lot of trouble for us to the tune of 11 first half turnovers. We came out in the second half and just trusted our process the rest of the way.”

The first quarter score was indicative of the kind of game it was early on. There were more blocked shots than made field goals as Mickeis Johnson of the Tigers and Joel Tunnat of the Cougars were the only players to score.

While Kareem Parker needed less than 10 seconds to score in the second and less than a minute to give the Cougars a 6-5 lead, West is considered one of the best teams in the area for a reason. Johnson scored again and Zion Gross became the first Tiger other than Johnson to put up points with 3:25 left in the half on a layup. Johnson stretched the lead to 11-8 on a layup with 2:58 left on the clock.

Aamir Shannon sunk a layup for West to make it a two possession lead, but a jumper by Corey Nobles cut Plainfield South’s deficit to 13-11 entering the midway point.

The third quarter saw both teams finally connect on their shots, but it was all Tigers to start. Gross opened the second half with a three pointer, a steal and a putback on his own missed shot. Those five pointers were the start of an 11-1 run for the Tigers to put them up 24-12. A teardrop for Nobles stopped the bleeding and got Plainfield South rolling a bit as they cut the edge to 29-23 with 2:48 left in the third.

From that point on, it was essentially all Tigers. A three-pointer by Kendall Bosby started a 9-0 run to close the quarter as Joliet West led 38-23. That 9-0 run became a 21-2 run in the fourth as Gross exploded offensively to put West up 59-25 and they never looked back.

Gross finished with 21 points, Johnson had 17 and Ethan Hillsman added 12. For Johnson, it wasn’t just his offensive contributions that had Kreiger pleased.

“His strength, athleticism and ability to score with the ball was huge,” Kreiger said. “I do want to highlight...his willingness to spread back on defense and save layups. He had three game-changing plays to knock the ball out of bounds, deflected another and knocked a shot off the backboard. Those are winning-basketball plays that go so far beyond making layups and scoring points.”

Plainfield South (5-1) was led by Parker with 17 points. Friday was the Cougars’ first loss of the year and came against one heck of a team, which was not lost on Howard.

“The first half couldn’t have been scripted any better,” Howard said. “I mean, they had 13 points. To hold Joliet West to 13 at the half? I felt good about that. I’m giving (West) credit. They made shots and I think we helped them because we missed a lot of layups. Maybe that’s nerves or the moment, but when you play teams like Joliet West you need every crumb and we didn’t get them crumbs.”

Plainfield South hosts Plainfield East on Tuesday while Joliet West hosts Romeoville on Tuesday.

“I’m hoping to win as a Tiger,” Johnson said of the next game. “I hope to go out and get three stops and three scores every quarter and just kill it.”