Bolingbrook demonstrates its full arsenal in win over Plainfield North

PLAINFIELD – It didn’t take long to be reminded of exactly how dangerous Bolingbrook can be when it is firing on all cylinders.

Very quickly in Friday night’s Southwest Prairie Conference matchup with Plainfield North, the Raiders showed the offensive versatility it has as all five of its starters hit at least one 3-pointer in setting an early tone.

The method of attack varied a bit but the offensive productivity did not as Bolingbrook breezed to an 80-60 victory.

“When we play the right way, we have a chance to be pretty good,” Bolingbrook coach Rob Brost said. “We saw that tonight right off the bat. We are hard to guard when we are sharing and playing the right way.”

That right way led to seven made 3-pointers in the first quarter for the Raiders (26-4, 15-0) and a 25-17 lead over a game but outmanned Tigers (16-11, 9-6) squad.

Seemingly just to mix things up, the Raiders went away from the long-range game and instead settled into scoring in other ways whether it be J.T. Pettigrew (17 points) muscling up inside or Davion Thompson’s (21 points) unstoppable mid-range shooting touch and adding a little icing to the cake was freshman Brady Pettigrew, who had nine of his 20 points in the Raiders second-quarter surge.

“This team is unbelievable and our coaches always give us a good game plan,” Brady Pettigrew said. “Our chemistry is so high and we know how to play with each other. So if someone’s hot we keep feeding them, because so many people can be hot at any moment and that’s why we’re so dangerous.”

Bolingbrook continued to attack the paint with ferocity in the third quarter stretching its lead to 20 and letting its primary players take a little time off late.

Plainfield North didn’t play poorly and tried its best to maintain contact, but strong performances from Quintin Wiencek (16 points), Pierre Pointer (14 points) and Darin Ashiru (13 points) were not enough to keep pace with the almost instant offense Bolingbrook seems to generate at times.

“We talk about it all the time in practice and the one thing that I really get after them about is selfish play and you really didn’t see any of that out there today,” Brost said. “Most of the threes we got tonight were after a paint touch which is exactly what we want.”

Bolingbrook has one regular-season game remaining (Tuesday against Minooka) before entering the postseason as the No. 1 seed in the Benet Sectional and will host its own regional. The Raiders look in prime position to do some serious postseason damage, but Brost isn’t focusing on that right now.

“We’re just trying to get better and make sure that our guys are fresh and make sure that we’re doing the right things,” Brost said. “When you do that then you have a chance to play well. We literally try to take it one game at a time.”