Boys basketball: Jack Haynes scores 36 in Streator’s win over Plano to reach 1,000

STREATOR – Streator senior forward Jack Haynes played like a young man on a mission during the Bulldogs’ Wednesday evening meeting with the Plano Reapers.

Mission accomplished.

Haynes poured in 36 points – the exact number he needed to become the sixth Streator High boys basketball player to score 1,000 in his varsity career – and added nine rebounds in the Bulldogs’ 64-48 nonconference victory at Pops Dale Gymnasium, avenging a one-point loss to the Reapers in the Plano Christmas Classic.

“I had a little fire going early on, and everything was going great, I was doing good at the free-throw line, everything. It was just a different type of night for me. I don’t know.”

—  Streator senior Jack Haynes

“The big kid,” Plano coach Kyle Kee said when asked the difference between his team’s 55-54 win over Streator a month-and-a-half ago and the Bulldogs’ 16-point triumph Wednesday. “We just didn’t have an answer. We were much better against him [in December], though he was hurting with a twisted ankle then.

“Tonight we just didn’t have an answer. We were a step slow all night, and they took advantage of it. [Streator] is a very quality team that is playing well, and we didn’t give them much of a challenge, I don’t think.”

Haynes scored six points or more in every quarter, including five successful and-1s and 13-of-19 free-throw shooting. It was the final two of those 13 made free throws midway through the fourth quarter that put Haynes in Streator ’s 1,000-point club – the first to join since J.J. Cravatta on Jan. 29, 2011, also at The Pops – and capped off his memorable night.

“I was just going strong with [the ball],” Haynes said. “They had two players with two fouls, two of their starters, and I knew what I had to do. I had a little fire going early on, and everything was going great, I was doing good at the free-throw line, everything.

“It was just a different type of night for me. I don’t know.”

The Reapers – paced by Tristan Canfield’s 10 points and five rebounds off the bench on a night leading scorer Mason Accidentale was limited to nine points on 4-of-16 shooting – led 15-11 after one quarter, but trailed for the remainder of the night after a nifty Haynes spin-move bucket 5:25 before halftime put the hosts ahead 19-17.

“We’re not worried about [Accidentale being held to single digits] moving forward,” Kee said. “It’s tough when you have a quality defender [Streator’s Jack Starkey spotted by Davey Rashid] guarding you and you’re not getting a lot from other guys. We want him to score in the flow of the offense, and we weren’t doing that tonight.”

Streator went on to lead 33-25 at the halftime break and by double digits almost the entirety of the second half.

“Jack [Haynes] is really establishing himself as a senior with a sense of urgency,” Streator coach Beau Doty said. “He’s been getting teams in foul trouble just by being aggressive and blending his game nicely between post-ups, face-ups, diving to the block, shooting his free throws better.

“When he plays with that kind of authority, he’s a load, an absolute matchup load for anybody. Our kids did a nice job recognizing he was hot and getting it to him.”

Christian Benning added 11 points, seven rebounds and four assists for the Bulldogs, with Jack Starkey overcoming a scoreless first half to finish with 10 points. Davey Rashid contributed six rebounds as Streator outrebounded the Reapers 32-18, outshot Plano from the field 47.8%-45.5% and finished 18 of 26 from the free-throw line to the visitors’ 3 of 6.

Plano (13-12), which also received seven points from a foul-limited Carion Hale, is scheduled back in action with a Friday home game against Morris and a Saturday evening visit to Fairbury to play Prairie Central.

Streator (17-7) has two more games at Pops Dale Gymnasium this week – a Friday visit from the team nipping at its heels for the Illinois Central Eight Conference title, Herscher, and then a Saturday night contest against Reed-Custer.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence with the way we’re playing ball right now,” Doty said. “It’s a huge weekend for us. ... We’ve got a lot to play for left.”