Things didn’t look good for the Lincoln-Way West boys basketball team late in the second quarter Saturday in a nonconference game against Plainfield Central.

Thanks to a stifling pressure defense, the Warriors led by 16 points entering the second quarter, but Plainfield Central had managed to trim that lead to nine points with just over a minute to play until halftime. Luke Gouty got free in the lane and was fouled. When he came down, he rolled his ankle on an opponent’s foot and was unable to complete the free throws.

Gouty returned in the second half, though, and scored 10 of his game-high 17 points to help the Warriors hold off the Wildcats 58-51.

“I rolled my ankle on his foot,” Gouty said about the injury. “It felt better in the second half, and I don’t think I came off the floor in the second half.

“We had a tough time in our Christmas tournament. We lost a couple of two-point games and had an overtime game that we lost, so it was nice to get off to a good start and get a win.”

Plainfield Central (5-10) led early in the first quarter on a pair of baskets by Ares Collins, who finished with 10 points and a game-high nine rebounds. It was all Warriors (7-8) in the first quarter after that, as they scored the next 19 points to take a 22-4 lead before Central’s Ladarius Bankhead scored at the buzzer.

In the quarter, West’s Drake Been got hot, draining three 3-pointers on his way to 15 points, all of which came in the first half.

“We just dug too big a hole for ourselves early,” Plainfield Central coach Tim Boe said. “We were chasing them the whole game. Give Lincoln-Way West credit. They were ready to go from the opening whistle. They are a good program, play good defense and run good stuff on offense.”

Plainfield Central, though, stayed on task and chipped away at the lead, closing to within 30-22 at halftime as Alexis Landfair (15 points) hit a pair of 3-pointers and had eight points in the second quarter. The Wildcats continued to close the gap, cutting a 37-30 West lead to 40-39 with 1:40 to play in the third on a basket by Stephon Griffin. Lincoln-Way West’s Eiden Kubilius (13 points) scored the final four points of the third to give his team a 44-39 lead entering the fourth.

Been showed that he is more than just a scorer for West, delivering two assists to Gouty in the fourth quarter that helped prevent any hopes of a Plainfield Central rally.

“We played really well in the first quarter,” West coach Tanner Mitchell said. “Our defensive pressure bothered them. We challenged our guys to be ready to play today after struggling with that in our games over Christmas.

“Luke Gouty is a tough kid and he shook off that injury and played really well. When he and Ethan Swanson, our football guys, get their basketball legs, we will be a lot better. They are getting very close.

“Eiden Kubilius is normally a starter for us, but he took a knee to the thigh in our Christmas tournament and didn’t play one of the games. He was still pretty tight in the first half, but it loosened up in the second half and he carried us for a while.”

Landfair led Plainfield Central with 15 points, while Collins scored 10 and Colby Logan added eight.

“We got ourselves back into the game by having good balance,” Boe said. “Lex [Landfair] and Colby Logan hit some big shots for us, and Ares Collins is tough to deal with in the paint. We just got behind by too much too early.”