Boys Basketball: Joliet West eventually upends plucky Joliet Central

JOLIET — The Joliet West boys basketball team has demonstrated on many occasions that it knows how to flip the switch and take it to the next level.

And on paper it didn’t necessarily look like that would be necessary heading into Saturday’s matchup with rival Joliet Central, who entered the contest with just three wins on the season.

But the Tigers did find themselves in a situation which once again required that they flip that proverbial switch as after being locked into a tie game with the Steelmen in the third quarter before amping things up to collect a 65-56 victory.

The win earned Joliet West the Southwest Prairie East Conference crown as it improved to 15-11 overall and 12-3 in league play. The Tigers have lost just one league game since early December (a two-point loss to Oswego East) since starting the season 1-2 in conference play.

Joliet West’s crowning wasn’t the breeze it was anticipated to be as the Tigers led just 18-17 after a quarter, and after stretching its lead to 33-25 at the halftime break, allowed Joliet Central (3-24, 2-14) to rattle off the first eight points of the second half to tie the score at 33.

But as it tends to do when threatened, the Tigers cranked up the intensity on both ends of the floor and rattled off a 14-2 run over the game’s next four minutes to re-establish control of the game.

However, Joliet Central didn’t go quietly. The Steelmen surged again, closing the gap to six points to force Joliet West to once again be forced to flip the switch yet again over the early stages of the fourth quarter.

“It comes down for us, regardless of experience level, how many games you’ve played or how good you may be or how bad you may be, its the mental focus that you have for four quarters,” Joliet West coach Jeremy Kreiger said. “Through adversity, how mentally locked in can you stay to control the game, you’ve seen us control games for large portions, but I don’t know if we’ve went wire to wire for a whole basketball game. So that’s what we continue to teach and coach because its so easy to relax.”

Sparked by Toby Onyekonwu (23 points), Joliet West finally put the finishing touches on the win to start out the fourth quarter. Onyekonwu started an 11-1 scoring run that allowed the Tigers to build an 18-point lead, although Joliet Central remained vigilant and continued to try to get back in the game they wouldn’t get closer than eight the rest of the way.

“We knew they weren’t going to quit, I mean this is Joliet West vs. Joliet Central,” Onyekonwu said. “But we could have done better than we did.”

The Tigers also appeared to have averted what might have been a pretty big problem as sophomore guard Jeremiah Fears left the game with a wrist injury. He would later return to the contest and the original diagnosis was that it was bruised. The Tigers are already playing without several contributors due to injuries, but still has hopes that they’ll be at full strength for the postseason.

Jayden Turner led Joliet Central with 13 points.