Joliet West spreads the wealth in SPC title win

JOLIET – Joliet West forward Ashawn Burbridge had a chance to secure a double-double in the second quarter of Saturday’s Southwest Prairie Conference championship game against Plainfield South.

But he did what one has come to expect from Joliet West, he passed the ball to a player with a better chance to score. He actually never got the double-double, and he didn’t seem to care.

That sort of unselfishness led to an impressive performance by West as they claimed the school’s first Southwest Prairie Conference tournament title and extended their home winning streak to 21 games with a 54-44 win over Plainfield South.

West (12-2) didn’t have a player score in double figures in the game, but it did have six players finish with between seven and nine points in the win.

“Balance. They love playing with one another and they embrace opportunity,” Joliet West coach Jeremy Kreiger said. “It’s not a I need to get 20 [points], I need to get 25 mentality. If we win, and we succeed together, that’s all that matters. We don’t stat seek. If anything, they worry about who has more offensive rebounds than actual points scored.”

The Tigers didn’t really catch their footing until the second quarter of the game. Connor Sukol provided another spark for the offensive by rattling off the first five points of the second quarter to push West’s lead to near double digits, and its relentless rebounding allowed the Tigers to quickly push the lead into double digits and keep it there.

Led by Burbridge, who had 12 rebounds in the first half alone, West limited South to one scoring chance on about every opportunity and had lots second- and third-chance scoring opportunities all game long.

“If scoring is not there, rebounding and defense always are,” Burbridge said. “We share the ball, there isn’t anybody selfish on this team. If we are all winning, we are all happy.”

After carrying a 14-point lead into the second half, the solid play continued for the Tigers as Terrance Moncrief, Luke Morrow and Burbridge scored on consecutive possession to open the lead to 20 points.

It would stay there for much of the second half with only a late rally by the Cougars to close the gap to 10 points as South outscored West, 17-5, in the fourth quarter.

Cooper Schmid led South with 16 points. Schmid, who had a sensational tournament in helping the third-seeded Cougars reach the tournament final, had to scratch and claw for each of those 16 points as a barrage of Joliet West defenders attempted to put the scorer on lock down.

It was a bittersweet end for the Tigers, who completed the rare feat of closing each of the last two seasons with a victory. But Kreiger is well aware of what this group of seniors have been able to accomplish.

“There’s no early success for me as a young coach without last year’s senior class and this year’s senior class, they were a testament of what it means to believe in what your coaches are teaching you, and then try to make the most of what you learned,” Kreiger said. “They were the epitome of everything you want of young men buying in. They set the pillars of the foundation for those future players.”