It’s no secret that it’s been a rough season for Romoeville. An exceptionally young squad, the Spartans’ girls basketball team began the year with 22 consecutive losses before finally breaking through last week for a victory over Plainfield Central.

Thursday night, though, the Spartans took another massive step in their process by winning for the second time in three games.

Jamiah Player scored 23 points, Alexia Hernandez Ortiz added 13 more and the Spartans took revenge for an earlier season loss against Joliet West with a 44-39 win against the Tigers at home.

Romeoville (2-23) previously played Joliet West on December 11th when it was Joliet West seeking their second win of the year. The Spartans led for much of the game, but the Tigers pulled away in the fourth quarter to win by nine. It was a tough defeat when Romeoville was looking to turn a corner.

Thursday night, an early back-and-forth contest saw Romeoville pull up by double-digits in the third quarter only for Joliet West to cut it close again. This time, though, the Spartans were able to squeeze out the victory.

“I felt like the ball movement (was working well tonight),” Player said. “We just worked well and hustled. We had teamwork and motivation. Everyone’s spirts were up.”

Romeoville coach Devon Friend also credited the team’s patience for the victory, especially when considering their youth.

“One of the things about having a young team is we can get a bit impulsive in tight spots,” Friend said. “We start to get jittery, so I told the girls to just be patient, let the game come to you and the playmaking opportunities will present themselves.”

Romeoville carries just one senior on the team with no juniors, five sophomores and two freshmen. That much youth and inexperience showed in the first few months of the season. For a program building for the next two years, winning twice in three contests is a massive confidence booster.

“I’ve been telling the girls all year that I set the schedule up to put mad pressure on them,” Friend said. “I want the ladies to understand what real competition looks like. That’s bigger than just our neighborhood, our conference and what we’re used to.

“When we play teams like Nazareth, or Bolingbrook or Benet I want them to understand what it takes to be better and be a competitive program. They’ve really come a long way and I’m really proud of them.”

Joliet West (3-20) was on the losing end for the 10th consecutive game, but competed until the final whistle. The game was within two possessions the entire first half with Romeoville only leading 10-7 after one quarter and 24-23 at halftime.

After the Spartans began the second half with a 14-2 run to go up 13, the Tigers got it back to 39-30 before the end of the period and got it back within four. That resiliency will be something for Joliet West to continue to build on in the future.

“We won’t hang our head low,” coach Breanna Blackmon said. “We fought until the finish and that’s the only thing I can ever ask from them. You fight thru and thru until the last second and I believe until the end they did.

“I say all the time we didn’t lose the game, we just ran out of time. I told them to keep their heads up, we still have a few more games left so let’s go uphill not downhill.”