Bolingbrook wears down Plainfield North in the second half for 74-63 victory

BOLINGBROOK – It’s no secret by now that the Bolingbrook boys basketball team has plenty of guys that can score. Friday night against Plainfield North, they needed all of them. Thankfully for the Raiders, each stepped up at different times when they were needed the most en route to a 74-63 victory.

Davion Thompson wound up scoring a game-high 21 points to go with six rebounds after a slower start by his lofty standards. JT Pettigrew carried the load in the second and third quarters before finishing the evening with 18 points and seven boards. Brady Pettigrew kept the Raiders going early while everyone else heated up and finished with 15 points and three steals.

Add in that starter Kendall Cutler put up 12 points, most of which came in the second half, and it’s not hard to see how BHS got the win. However, they were pushed every step of the way by the lights out three-point shooting by the Tigers. Plainfield North made 11 shots from beyond the arc, five of them from Quintin Wiencek, who led the team with 17 points.

Pierre Pointer (13 points) and Lukas Alvarez (12 points) had strong performances as well which kept Plainfield North within striking distance for the first half and stretches of the third quarter. Wiencek and Pointer had to go to the bench midway through the third with four fouls apiece, however, allowing Bolingbrook to pull ahead by 10. Pointer ultimately fouled out and the Tigers couldn’t come back.

“We did what we were supposed to do tonight,” Bolingbrook coach Rob Brost said. “We’re still getting guys back from injury and trying to figure out the rotation. (Plainfield North is) a really good team. You have to give them credit and they’re very well coached. They hit a lot of threes in the first half especially. We were hoping to wear them down and that’s kind of what happened in the second half.”

After a layup by Joseph Charbonneau for Plainfield North to start the game, Bolingbrook answered with a 9-0 run punctuated by a steal and dunk by Brady Pettigrew. Alvarez hit a three, however, and that began a 10-3 run for the Tigers with Wiencek tying the game at 12-12 with a triple midway through the quarter. The contest remained close, but JT Pettigrew’s contested three with nine seconds left made it 21-15 after one.

Trey Brost’s three and Brady Pettigrew’s steal and dunk to start the second helped the Raiders extend the lead to 27-18 in the first 90 seconds. The Tigers wouldn’t go away, however, and Wiencek’s trey with 2:34 left until halftime cut the deficit to 32-31 before Pointer’s three 30 seconds later gave North the lead for the first time since it was 2-0.

The two squads changed leads five times after that before the quarter was done with Cutler’s layup with 22 ticks on the clock making it 39-38 Bolingbrook entering the locker room.

The teams traded leads another five times to start the third before Brady Pettigrew’s jumper made it 46-44 for the sixth lead change. Darius Hudson stole the ensuing inbound passed and dished it to Cutler for a finger roll. JT Pettigrew made a pair of foul shots after that and just like that, it was 50-44 with 5:18 left in the period.

A triple by Samuel Finn later cut the deficit to 51-47, but Pointer and Wiencek went to the bench with foul trouble and the Raiders went on a 9-2 run to go up by 11. Wiencek hit a triple with four seconds left in the period to cut things to 61-54 entering the final quarter.

Wiencek managed to get the Tigers within 61-59 on a trey 86 seconds into the fourth, but an 8-0 run by the Raiders put it out of reach the rest of the way.

“(Plainfield North) was hitting shots early on in the first half,” Thompson said. “I feel like we stepped up defensively in the second half and that slowed them down.”

Bolingbrook (7-1) will visit Minooka on Tuesday while Plainfield North (5-3) will play Joliet West on Friday.

“We’ve got to keep our heads up,” Tigers coach Bob Krahulik said. “We play Joliet West next and they’re a very similar team. We’ve just got to battle like we did tonight.”