Joliet West uses second half surge to best Plainfield South

JOLIET — Both of the combatants in Tuesday night’s Southwest Prairie Conference matchup between Joliet West and Plainfield South pride themselves in putting forth a defensive effort that frustrates the opponent.

And for large portions on the game both squads could consider themselves successful on that front.

But Joliet West (17-9, 10-3) managed to show some offensive bursts and that was all it needed to turn the tide in a 62-50 victory over Plainfield South, a win that puts Joliet West firmly in the driver’s seat for a Southwest Prairie East Division title.

The pivotal burst came in the third quarter and was provided almost exclusively by senior Zion Gross.

Nasim Sears opened the second half with a 3-pointer to get things for Joliet West. Then Gross began his takeover, scoring 12 of the game’s next 15 points. At the end of the surge, Joliet West’s lead grew to as large as 18.

Gross finished the third quarter with 14 of his game-high 23 points, being considerably more assertive with attacking the basket than he and his Joliet West teammates had been in the first half.

“We understood what they were coming to do to us,” Gross said. “But once you start pushing the ball up the floor and get into transition and start punishing the rim and get to the free throw line, they couldn’t really stop us after that. So that was the big difference.”

Joliet West did a much better job of getting high-percentage looks and attacking the basket than it did in the first half, so much so that it didn’t need to lean too much on shooting from the perimeter. The offensive effort was the polar opposite of a first half in which Joliet West didn’t attack with its usual ferocity.

“There are certain teams that are going to want to slow it down, just at the pace that we do not enjoy as young men,” Joliet West coach Jeremy Kreiger said. “There’s a level of basketball that we have to understand that you have to dictate the pace and not allow the visitiors to dictate the pace.

Plainfield South (16-8, 8-5) tried to maintain contact and the Cougars stayed afloat by rattling off a 9-0 run late in the third quarter but still found themselves staring up at a double-digit deficit to start the fourth quarter.

The Cougars would whittle the lead down to eight points on a Joell Tunnat 3-pointer, but Gross would answer with back-to-back baskets and the Joliet West lead wouldn’t slide below double digits the rest of the way.

Neither team got much of a foothold for much of the first half as Joliet West held scant leads before surging ahead with a 7-0 run late in the second quarter that helped them to a 28-22 halftime lead.

“There have been times we have not done the best job as a team of valuing the basketball in the first half,” Kreiger said. “And it is getting the young man to understand there are certain metrics in basketball where when you control those you usually win.

“So rebounding margin, free throw disparity, transition points and turnovers. When we have that recipe and hit four for four on those, that’s the best version of us. Any other version and we’re climbing out of holes, and we don’t want that.”