Boys basketball: Wealth of options cash in win for Bolingbrook over Romeoville

ROMEOVILLE – The Bolingbrook boys basketball team is always at its best when it remembers and executes one of the key tenets of the system preferred by its veteran coach Rob Brost.

And when the Raiders make liberal use of one simple word – “share” – and apply it frequently to their offensive attack mode, it usually leads to good things as it did during stretches of Bolingbrook’s 59-48 win over Romeoville on Wednesday night.

Wednesday’s win also continued a recent stretch where Bolingbrook finally had all of its weapons at its disposal after some early-season injuries kept the Raiders from showing the full potential of their roster.

Mehki Cooper led a balanced Bolingbrook offense with 14 points, which also saw four other players scoring at least six points and several more from the deep Bolingbrook roster making positive contributions.

Having the full arsenal available to deploy puts the Raiders in a much better position moving forward, and it isn’t lost on the team’s players.

“It feels a lot better,” Cooper said. “It gives me a lot more confidence, but I feel like we we all held together and executed. I feel like everybody stepped up and contributed to the win.”

It looked like Bolingbrook (11-4) might run away and hide early, as a 12-3 run at the end of the second quarter sent the Raiders into the locker room with a 15-point advantage at 34-19.

“I think we defended very well,” Brost said, “and so we just played the game plan in the second quarter, making them take shots outside the lane, and then we rebounded. When we rebound at a high rate, we are usually pretty good, because then that spurs our transition, and then we can get on the run and do what we like to do.”

But much to Brost’s chagrin, his team got a little complacent with the substantial lead and gave a good chunk of the advantage back in the third quarter and early portion of the fourth quarter.

“In the third period we were not scoring at all,” Brost said. “We just kind of got bogged down a little bit, and I think we kind of relax a little bit, especially on offense. And if we’re going to beat really good teams, which Romeoville is, we’re going to have to be able to take care of the ball when we’re off.”

Romeoville (12-6) managed to draw within seven points at the end of three quarters and twice had opportunities to close within as few as three points, but Bolingbrook fueled another scoring flurry with a number of contributors to push its lead back to 14 midway through the fourth quarter.

And for as much as Bolingbrook struggled offensively in the third quarter, Romeoville’s offense was heavily thwarted in the fourth. The Spartans managed only three points for the first seven minutes of the period. Romeoville ultimately scored 12 points in the quarter, as it finally got some shots to fall in the final minute, but well after the Bolingbrook win was secure.

Meyoh Swansey led all scorers with 17 points for Romeoville, Aaron Brown added 15, and Troy Cicero Jr. chipped in 14. But unlike Bolingbrook’s notable offensive balance, that trio accounted for all but two of Romeoville’s points.