Joliet West uses balanced offense in complete win over Plainfield North

JOLIET -- Death, taxes, and the 2024 Joliet West boys basketball team winning games with a balanced offensive scoring output. There may be a few more guarantees in life, but those three are a safe bet.

That last one was the story Friday night as the Tigers of Joliet West put forth a solid effort and collected a 68-43 Southwest Prairie Conference victory over Plainfield North.

Joliet West (8-2, 5-1) was led by Zion Gross’ 15 points, 10 of which came in the opening quarter. Gross leading the effort is the norm for the Tigers, but the norm has also been that the whole team gets involved and that too was the case. Gross was one of three players in double-figures and nine of West’s 11 players put the ball in the basket. The defense was excellent, too, as only four players scored points for Plainfield North.

“We felt at times (in the first half) we were passing up great shots,” Joliet West coach Jeremy Kreiger said. “But I told the coaching staff not to get on them too much because it’s a great problem to have that we want to share the ball so much. When people prepare for us they can’t really key in on anyone because we have so many threats offensively. As a unit we like to see everyone be successful.”

Joliet West started strong with Grozz, Mickeis Johnson and Luke Grevengoed all scoring in the first two minutes to give the home Tigers a 6-0 lead. Pierre Pointer of the road Tigers went on a 5-0 run by himself to pull Plainfield North within one midway through the first before Aamir Shannon and Gross extended the lead to 11-5.

A deep 3-pointer by Gross with one minute left in the opening period made it 17-11 Joliet West, but a layup with 4.3 ticks on the clock cut the deficit to 17-13 to end the first.

The second quarter started similar to the first as Tristian Saunders nailed a quick triple to make it a seven-point advantage for Joliet West. Quintin Wiencek hit a three 90 seconds later, but Kendall Bosby responded with a trey right after. North managed to cut it back to a four-point edge, but Joliet West responded with a 10-1 run to close the half with a 35-22 lead at the midway point.

It was mostly free throws in the third period for both squads. In the final 90 seconds of the quarter, though, Johnson connected on a layup which was followed by a Saunders layup to make it 48-32. Plainfield North closed the quarter with three made free throws before Hillsman sunk a buzzer-beating jumper for West to make it 50-35 entering the final period.

The fourth was the same story in a different period. Hillsman made a layup which was followed by an acrobatic layup by Pointer who then made a three to shave the margin to 14. Once again, West responded as Johnson sunk a trey to make it 57-40. Gross scored his first basket since the second with five minutes left and Hillsman hit a layup a minute later to extend the edge to 21 and that was all she wrote.

“We came into this game with a chip on our shoulder knowing that we had school and finals this week,” Gross said. “We still locked in from the jump and understood our assignments. We knew they had shooters and they were letting the ball fly. We just stay disciplined throughout the whole game.”

Johnson finished with 13 points while Hillsman had 10. For Plainfield North (5-4, 2-3), Pointer finished with a game-high 18 points with Wiencek adding 10. Now, Plainfield North and Joliet West will both prepare for the winter break and tournament season.

“Our coach makes sure we’re on top of everything with our books,” Johnson said. “He starts every practice with a message and relays that message to everyone. He keeps us motivated and influenced throughout and he’ll keep that going.”