Boys basketball: Plainfield North rallies in fourth quarter to top Plainfield East

PLAINFIELD – In each of the first three quarters Saturday afternoon against Plainfield North, Plainfield East opened on a scoring run to move out to a bigger lead.

The fourth quarter, however, was Plainfield North’s turn, and the Tigers turned the tables on the Bengals. They scored the last nine points of the game to erase a three-point deficit and come away with a 75-69 win in the latest edition of the Battle of 119th Street.

Senior Evan Czarnik was a key contributor for the Tigers, leading the team with 23 points, including seven 3-pointers, to go with six rebounds and five blocked shots.

“I actually shot better last year than I have this year, so far,” Czarnik said. “But if I’m open, I am going to shoot. This year, I have taken a lot of pride in my defense. I have been averaging about three blocks a game, so that’s another way I can impact the game if I am not shooting well.

“For a lot of the game, we didn’t rebound on defense real well, but we were able to do it in the last part of the fourth quarter.”

Czarnik was hardly the only key player for North (12-9), however. Quinten Wiencek scored eight points in the fourth quarter, draining back-to-back 3-pointers to pull the Tigers to within 68-66. After East (7-12) got a free throw by Kevin Tchoffa (team-high 20 points) to make it 69-66, the Tigers got a basket by Pierre Pointer (nine points), then one by Darin Ashiru (two points) to give them the lead for good at 70-69 with 2:23 remaining. Joshua Holmes, who came off the bench to score 10 points, scored off an assist from Wiencek for a 72-69 lead. Jeffery Fleming (17 points, six rebounds) made a pair of free throws with 17.6 seconds left and Holmes added another free throw with 10.3 left to seal the victory.

“We finally rebounded well in the fourth quarter,” North coach Bob Krahulik said. “They got a lot of second-chance points early. They like to jam all five guys in there for an offensive rebound, and it worked for them. Once we were able to get some defensive rebounds, we were able to get out in transition and get some baskets.

“Evan did a great job tonight. This was his best shooting game in a while.”

North held a 13-8 lead in the first quarter, but East scored the final 12 points of the period, getting eight points from Tchoffa, two from DeSean Miller and two from Kobe Jordan, to take a 20-13 lead at the end of the first.

North opened the second quarter with an 8-2 run to close the score to 22-21 and later took a 33-30 lead on a three-point play by Maki Armstrong with 1:40 to play until halftime. Again, East scored a lot in a hurry, getting seven points in nine seconds when Tchoffa scored on a putback, then stole an inbounds pass and scored, and Aaron King repeated the feat for a 37-33 lead. The Bengals got a pair of free throws by Miller (13 points) to end the half with a 39-33 edge.

Once again, North opened the quarter strong, cutting the lead to 44-43 on a Czarnik 3-pointer, but East finished the quarter on a 10-4 run to take a 54-47 lead into the fourth.

East moved out to a 61-52 lead with 6:30 to play and led 68-60 with 4:20 left before North mounted its comeback, led by Wiencek’s back-to-back 3-pointers from the right corner.

“’Q’ had 25 points the other night, so he’s been playing well,” Krahulik said. “He hit a couple of big 3-pointers for us. We called the plays to get him the ball, and he delivered. Josh Holmes is coming back from a foot injury, and his shot is coming back, so that gives us another option.

“It’s always nice to get a win over another Plainfield team, especially East since they are right down the street from us.”