WW South tests Plainfield East
Wheaton Warrenville South gave Plainfield East, the top seed in the Class 4A Neuqua Valley regional, everything it had during Tuesday’s semifinal matchup.
The Tigers’ trademark ball control, half-court offense kept the Bengals off the scoreboard early on, but Plainfield East turned up the defensive pressure for the final three quarters and came away with a hard-fought 51-42 victory.
The Bengals (26-1) move on to Friday’s regional final where they will play the winner of Wednesday’s semifinal matchup between Neuqua Valley and Naperville Central.
Wheaton Warrenville South coach Bob Szorc’s first year with the program finished 11-17.
“I’m blessed to work with a great group of kids, a great administration and coaching staff,” Szorc said. “I thanked the seniors for their dedication to the program.”
The Tigers used their half-court offense and a poor shooting effort by Plainfield East to take an 8-5 lead at the end of one quarter. If not for a 3-point buzzer-beater by Jawan Straughter, the Bengals would have finished with just one made field goal in the first eight minutes.
Plainfield East applied better defensive pressure in the second quarter, forcing 8 Tigers turnovers and outscoring them 17-5 in that stretch. Straughter’s buzzer-beater started a 16-0 run for the Bengals and gave them a lead they would never relinquish.
“We needed some things to go our way,” Szorc said. “(Plainfield East) made plays when they needed to and that’s a sign of a great team.”
Down 22-13 at halftime, Wheaton Warrenville South trimmed the Plainfield East lead down to five on four separate occasions in the second half. Michael Kramer’s coast-to-coast fastbreak layup with 6:40 left in the game cut the Bengals lead to 36-31, as close as the Tigers would get.
Tim Zyburt twice cut the Plainfield East lead to six in the fourth quarter. His lay-in off an assist from Patrick Garner and subsequent free throw made the score 42-36. Then came a Zyburt tip-in off a Garner miss cut the lead to 44-38.
However, the inside play of Plainfield East senior center Brian Bennett kept the Tigers from getting any closer as he finished with 9 of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter.
A pair of free throws by WW South’s Zach Zlabis trimmed the Bengal lead down to six one last time before Bennett and teammate Myles Walters combined to go 5 of 6 at the free-throw line in the final minute.
Jeff Pagano knocked down a baseline jumper for the Tigers as the final buzzer sounded.
“I give Wheaton Warrenville South all the credit in the world,” Plainfield East coach Branden Adkins said. “They run their system and they run it well. We came from playing our two best conference games against Plainfield South and Oswego East where we beat them by 20-plus (points). Then we come out here and lay an egg.”