Bella Gruber helps lead Plainfield North past Plainfield South

PLAINFIELD — Athletes give their best efforts in all of their games. But a rivalry game hits a little differently.

Such was the case Thursday night when District 202 and Southwest Prairie Conference rivals Plainfield North and Plainfield South renewed hostilities on the girls basketball court.

In a physical, hard-nosed game, Plainfield North played a stingy defense and got balanced scoring in a 57-51 win.

Senior Bella Gruber scored a team-high 14 points for the Tigers (11-6, 3-3). She also grabbed seven rebounds and left some skin on the floor after multiple dives for loose balls.

It was nothing new for her in a rivalry game.

“It’s a pride thing when we play another Plainfield school,” Gruber said. “We want to be the best team in Plainfield, and so do they, so we know it’s a game where we are going to have to put it all on the floor.

“All of us were going hard, getting on the floor for the 50/50 balls. We got quite a few of them and that adds up over the whole game.”

Plainfield North’s defense was a key all night, as Plainfield South was guilty of 23 turnovers, including 11 in the third quarter when North took control.

“The defense was awesome,” Gruber said. “We pressured the ball and iso’s the screens. We knew they wanted to drive to the basket and that helped us stop that.”

The Tigers used a 9-0 run at the end of the first quarter on back-to-back 3-pointers by Isabella Koldoff and another by Mia Gonzalez to take an 18-9 lead into the second.

After North scored the first basket of the second quarter, South (8-9, 4-3) scored the next seven points to cut it to 20-16. North ended the quarter on a 10-3 run to take a 30-19 halftime lead.

The Cougars got a basket by Zahira Edwards to start the second half, and a 3-pointer by teammate La’Niya Willis cut the deficit to 30-24. The Tigers defense took over from there, though, outscoring South 13-7 to take a 43-31 lead into the fourth.

Gruber scored six points in the fourth to help preserve the lead. After her 14 points, the Tigers got 11 each from Koldoff and Sydney Scott and 10 from Kaitlyn Sedillo. Koldoff led with eight rebounds.

“This was my first taste of the Plainfield rivalry,” first-year North coach Brittany McWaine said. “Defensively, we did a good job. Our scoring has been balanced like it was tonight pretty much all year.

“Bella Gruber and Sydney Scott have been great leaders for us. Now, we need to keep playing like this the rest of the year.”

Plainfield South put on a late charge and cut a 50-35 deficit to 54-49 with a minute left, but couldn’t entirely close the gap. Willis led the Cougars with 19 points, while Tierra Abner scored 18 and Edwards added nine. Willis also had a team-high nine rebounds.

“Turnovers were a problem for us tonight,” South coach Alana Warren said. “We’ve been working on it. Plainfield North has a good defense, which caused a lot of our turnovers, but some of them were on us.

“One thing I always know about our girls is that they are going to play hard to the end. I don’t have to ask for heart and effort from these girls. They have it already. Now we can work on the other skills.”