Boys basketball: Devin Tyda’s big first quarter leads Plainfield South past Plainfield North

PLAINFIELD — After finishing the 2023 portion of the schedule with a 4-12 record, Plainfield South was hoping to start 2024 on a positive note Friday when they took on District 202 rival Plainfield North.

The Cougars did exactly that, controlling the game from the start and scoring a 58-51 victory.

Senior guard Devin Tyda got South (5-12) going early, scoring 13 of his team-high 18 points in the first quarter to help the Cougars grab a 22-12 lead after one period.

“This was a great win for us,” Tyda said. “We really needed that. We have lost some tough games this year, so to get any win was great. To get one against another Plainfield school, we needed that.

“Our defense starts everything. We played good defense and it led to some open looks for me and everyone else. We spread things out and played well as a team.”

The game was tied at 9 midway through the first quarter before Jeremy Lesure (11 points, eight rebounds) hit a pair of free throws for South. Tyda followed with a 3-pointer, which was answered by a 3-pointer from North’s Evan Czarnik. Tyda then converted an old-fashioned three-point play before hitting another 3-pointer and ending the quarter with a steal and layup.

Plainfield North (9-9) opened the second quarter on a 9-2 spurt to cut the Cougar lead to 24-19, getting a 3-pointer from Lukas Alvarez, a pair of free throws by Jeffrey Fleming, who went 13 of 14 from the line en route to a game-high 23 points, and a basket by Maki Armstrong. South then sandwiched 3-pointers by Armani Hilton (10 points) and Dereon Smothers around a basket by Fleming to take a 30-21 lead before Alvarez hit a floater at the buzzer to send the game into halftime with South owning a 30-23 lead.

“It all starts for us with defense,” South coach Jeff Howard said. “One of our goals tonight was to keep Fleming off the free-throw line. That’s hard to do. He’s a terrific player. Second, we wanted to make sure 22 [Czarnik] had to put the ball on the floor instead of just getting the ball and shooting. We did a good job of that, and he had to move back a step or two to get his 3-pointers off.

“We also made a lot of our shots, which helped. In 2023, we struggled and were inconsistent both offensively and defensively. But, we had some really good practices over break. We played a couple of tough teams at Pekin [Moline and Washington]. I wasn’t disappointed that we lost those games, but I was a little disappointed in our mental focus. We worked on that a lot over break.”

The Tigers began the second quarter with a basket by Quintin Wiencek (10 points), but South held them scoreless for nearly six minutes as they built the lead back to 37-25. North got a pair of free throws each by Pierre Pointer and Fleming to pull to within 37-29, but Marcus Johnson hit a 3-pointer to put South ahead 40-29 and the Cougars took a 42-32 lead into the fourth.

Plainfield North got to within 50-43 after a three-point play by Pointer before Lesure put the exclamation point on the win with a steal and slam for a 52-43 lead and the Tigers couldn’t cut the lead below seven the rest of the way.

“Our effort and energy was tremendous,” Howard said. “One of our goals this year was to be the best team in Plainfield. We lost on a last-second shot to East, and we have beaten North and Central. We have games against East and Central coming up.

“When I came here, I wanted to be the best in our backyard. If we can keep our mental focus like we did tonight, we will be in good shape.”