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ROMEOVILLE — On senior night at Romeoville, the Spartans started a group of five seniors who don’t normally start.
The starting five entered the game midway through the first quarter, but those that started had already put the Spartans on their way, building a 7-2 behind five points from Jacob Miloch lead en route to a 55-41 Southwest Prairie Conference victory over Joliet Central.
When the starters came in, they announced their presence with authority. Daylyn Porter almost immediately intercepted a pass and went the other way for a layup. He added a putback basket at the end of the first quarter to give the Spartans (13-16, 9-6) a 12-3 lead at the end of the first.
DJ Porter, who was honored prior to the game for scoring his 1,000th career point earlier this season, kept the Spartan mojo alive throughout the second quarter, recording five of his team-high 13 points and delivering assists on baskets by Jamarri Fears and Jariah Johnson.
“Our defense picked things up,” Porter said. “At halftime, we knew we had to come out with the defense like we did in the middle of the first quarter. We were able to get out and run and get some baskets off of our defense.
“We knew we would be in a fight with Joliet Central. They always play hard and it’s never easy against them.”
The Steelmen (2-24, 1-14) chipped away at the Romeoville lead throughout the second quarter, and four straight points by James Lee (10 points) cut the edge to 24-17. Johnson drained a 3-pointer for the Spartans before a pair of free throws by Central’s BJ Fox (eight points) made it 27-21. DJ Porter ended the first-half scoring with an old-fashioned three-point play.
Daylyn Porter started the second half with a putback, and the Spartans' lead reached 41-29 before the Steelmen ended the third with back-to-back baskets by Lee and Amari Jackson (10 points).
“It was senior night and we have eight seniors,” Romeoville coach Marc Howard said. “We started five of them who don’t usually start, so it took us a little while to get back into our regular rotation. It’s fun to do that for the seniors, though.
“Once we got things back into the regular rotation in the third quarter, though, we started to pull away.”
Romeoville scored the first two baskets of the fourth quarter, but the Steelmen answered with consecutive buckets by Fox and Javontae McCann. Romeoville countered with an 8-0 run, started by a bucket by Danny Thompson and finished by six straight points by DJ Porter. Joliet Central stopped the run with a basket by Lee and another by Luis Rivas before Romeoville ended the game with a dunk by Noah Harris on a pass off the backboard by Kristian Flowers.
Though the Spartans finished the regular season below .500, they feel that their strong schedule throughout the season will help their upcoming postseason chances.
“We feel like we will probably be underdogs,” DJ Porter said. “But we have played some teams that were nationally-ranked and state-ranked. The seeds and records don’t matter. Everyone is 0-0 when the regionals start.
“Playing the schedule we played really opened our eyes. Playing teams like that will let you know what you have to work on, and we have worked on those things.”