Joliet West explodes in fourth quarter to topple Lockport

PONTIAC — Joliet West coach Jeremy Kreiger is about as verbal as one gets in game with his team.

And most of the time his chargers are open to the message the Tigers coach is trying to impart.

But for a considerable part of Thursday night’s opening round matchup with Lockport at the Pontiac Holiday Tournament that message simply wasn’t getting across.

Then the fourth quarter happened.

Joliet West scored the first 18 points of the fourth quarter, after starting the frame trailing by a point, setting the stage for 66-53 Joliet West victory.

Joliet West will play DePaul Prep at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the quarterfinals, while Lockport will challenge the host school in a consolation bracket game at 6 p.m.

The fourth quarter rally seemed to come out of nowhere. Joliet West squandered a seven-point lead midway through the third quarter as Lockport pieced together a 13-5 run to close the third quarter as Joliet West’s defensive intensity seemed to disappear.

It came back with a vengeance to start the fourth quarter.

After Mickeis Johnson pulled Joliet West to within one (43-42) with a basket at the end of the third quarter, the Tigers cranked up the defense and with it came its transition offense.

Five different Joliet West players scored at least one basket during the 18-0 run with Zion Gross, who led the Tigers with 15 points, netting six of them.

“We just adjusted to all of the mistakes that we made in the first half and we kind of settled and then understood how we could have been better in the second half,” Gross said.

Gross, like the rest of the Tigers, clicked in a sense of teamwork during the scoring flurry, something that was constantly present earlier in the game.

“The coaches are always preaching to me to impact the game in other ways, no matter if it is rebounding or something else,” Gross said. “If your shot isn’t falling, get shots for your teammates and just be a great player without scoring.”

Joliet West seemed to exemplify that message throughout its roster in the fourth quarter as its largely inexperienced roster slowly got its bearings on the scope of playing in the environment the Pontiac Holiday Tournament usually provides.

“I think it might have been the nature of playing in that environment,” Kreiger said. “We have a very young team, with eight juniors and some of them haven’t been in this environment before. Not making excuses but as a coach sometimes its tough to try to win the mental battle all the time.”

Ethan Hillsman added 14 points for Joliet West and Johnson added 12. Luke Grevengoed finished with five points, but stuffed the stat sheet in other ways and provided a huge 3-pointer to stop a Lockport run late in the third quarter when it looked like the Porters were on the verge of trying to break away.

It was a frustrating loss for Lockport, which on several occasions seemed to be on the verge of turning the corner toward victory. The Porters hit a wall in the fourth quarter though, going nearly five minutes without scoring and had several high percentage scoring chances simply rattle out.

Bryce Turner led Lockport with 17 points, while Collin Miller added 15.

It was a back and forth first half as there were six ties and six lead changes, but Joliet West controlled the back half of the second quarter as the Tigers went on an 11-6 run to head into halftime up seven points.