Boys Basketball: Bolingbrook’s defense sets tone for win over Joliet West

JOLIET — Bolingbrook’s basketball program is often cited for how well it excels on offense.

That’s a more than supportable position considering how prominent the program typically is in scoring points.

But on Saturday afternoon it was Bolingbrook’s defensive effort that set the stage for a 73-53 win over host Joliet West in a non-conference matchup.

The Raiders and Tigers appeared to be on their way to yet another high-scoring back-and-forth chapter in this recent rivalry after Bolingbrook emerged from a high-paced first quarter with a 19-18 lead.

But the Raiders established themselves nicely on the defensive end in the second quarter by employing a zone defense to great effect. By doing so, the Raiders were able to contain Joliet West’s ability to attack the paint off the dribble, a primary source of Tiger effectiveness on offense.

“They (Joliet West) have been playing so well coming into the game, I was really concerned that they would be very difficult to guard, and they were, initially,” Bolingbrook coach Rob Brost said. “We made some adjustments, and to our kids credit, we don’t normally play zone, hardly at all. But to our kids credit, they really did a good job with it, kind of doing it on the fly.”

That coupled with a strong effort on the glass where Michael Osei-Bonsu (16 points, 15 rebounds) seemed to collect every errant shot on both ends of the floor and Bolingbrook took firm control of the game in the second quarter as the defense and rebounding, led to multiple scores in transition as they outscored Joliet West 23-5 in the second quarter.

Bolingbrook carried a 42-23 lead into the second half and pushed it all the way to a 24-point lead early in the third quarter when MJ Langit, who led Bolingbrook with 19 points, converted a lay-up to give the Raiders a 52-28 advantage.

Joliet West then began to try its attempt at mounting a huge rally. The Tigers would cap the third quarter on a 14-2 scoring run and started the fourth quarter with another push culminating in a Skylar Crudup basket that drew them with 58-53 with just under five minutes to play in the game.

“We knew the run was coming, we just had to handle it, and move forward,” Brost said. “And we did exactly that.”

But not only would Osei-Bonsu stop the Joliet West rush with back-to-back baskets it would spark yet another Raider scoring run that accounted for the final 15 points of the contest without any counter from Joliet West.

Six different Raiders scored at least seven points in the game with Mekhi Cooper making it a trio of Bolingbrook players in double figures as he finished with 13. That kind of balance is exactly what Brost likes to see from his crew.

“That’s our team,” Brost said. “There’s good in bad in that. The good part is that we’re really hard to guard, the bad part is that the coach doesn’t know what he’s going to get night in and night out. But I’ll take the balance for sure. We’re very unselfish group and we really don’t care about the scoring piece and did a good job today of sharing.”

It had the makings of an ominous week for Bolingbrook after a Monday loss to New Trier where the wheels fell off. But the Raiders ended up regrouping nicely with comfortable wins over Lincoln-Way East, Lincoln-Way West and Joliet West that allowed the Raiders to feel considerably better about the week than the way it began.

“Going on back-to-back on the road to two tough places, I’m really proud of how our guys hung in there,” Brost said. “We had four really tough games in six days and I’m really proud of our guys coming off of Monday, I really challenged them as not only basketball players but as people and they really responded.”

Joliet West once again fell to the .500 mark at 11-11 and snapped a two-game winning streak. The Tigers rigorous schedule hasn’t allowed them to amass a winning streak of longer than three games all season, but the battle tested squad has given a good accounting of itself in nearly every game this season.

Justus McNair led Joliet West with 13 points, while Jeremiah Fears and Toby Onyekonwu each scored 11.