Several members of the Joliet West basketball team were in lock step when asked what was the predominant reason why the Tigers are in the midst of a nine-game winning streak.

“I think it is just trusting in the work and the practice habits, that’s been really huge,” senior forward Ryan Lipke said. “And getting on this little win streak continues the momentum.”

Lipke, who finished with 19 points, played a big role in a dominant first half of play for the Tiger which set the stage for a 76-61 Southwest Prairie Conference victory over Plainfield East on Friday.

Joliet West (18-8, 12-2) started quickly in large part to 12 first-quarter points from Devin Triplett, but the Tigers didn’t make a real power move until the second quarter.

The Tigers rattled off the first 16 points of the second quarter and sandwiched in the middle of that scoring flurry were a quartet of 3-point baskets, two by Lipke and one each by Triplett and Elijah Wilson.

The spectacular second quarter was finished off with a bucket from Aamir Shannon (20 points) and Joliet West carried a 45-23 lead into the break after outscoring Plainfield East 22-6 in the second quarter.

“We were just connecting on offense, and connecting on defense,” Shannon said. “We were all just flying around, playing very well together and playing off each other.”

Seemingly buried, Plainfield East tried to push back.

A 26-point third quarter got the Bengals (16-11, 8-6) back to within respectability, a rally fueled by Bengal guard KJ Miller. Miller had 10 of his game-high 26 points in the frame.

And Plainfield East kept charging back into the game as Joliet West went a bit frosty on offense after the hot start. Miller’s 3-pointer with 4:33 to play pulled Plainfield East to 61-55.

But Joliet West responded with the same measured attacking offense that fueled them in the first half and would go on an 11-3 run to put the game away for good.

“The nature in which they [Plainfield East] play, they are really good at making tough shots,” Joliet West coach Jeremy Kreiger said. “And then when we relax, they take the momentum and then a 22-point lead evaporates.

“But then we go on another run and get it back to 20 and then we relax again.”

Joliet West was 7-7 after a loss to Warren on January 3, but has gone 11-1 since with its only setback coming in an overtime loss to Bolingbrook during that stretch.

“When you see us in January and February our ability to move the ball and trust all those guys its so much different,” Kreiger said of his team’s second-half surge."