JOLIET -- Thanksgiving weekend. Extra helpings of turkey and all those scrumptious fixings.
And football, plenty of very important football games on all levels, not the least of which is high school. Eight state championship games are scheduled today and Saturday at the University of Illinois in Champaign.
Lost in all of that, perhaps, is the beginning of basketball season.
If the bouncing ball is your pleasure, you may want to consider a trip tonight to the University of St. Francis Recreation Center.
The first two days of the 13th annual Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center/WJOL Radio Thanksgiving Classic are in the books. And while the basketball has not always been artistic, virtually every game has been competitive.
For example, Plainfield Central's 47-44 victory over Joliet Catholic Academy in Wednesday night's third game, which concluded after The Herald News deadline. JCA sophomore guard Breshion Tucker rattled a long 3-point attempt in and out at the buzzer. Had it gone in and stayed there, overtime would have ensued.
The three games scheduled tonight match traditional rivals, but also teams with identical records in the tournament. JCA and Providence Catholic, both 0-2, square off at 5:30 p.m. Plainfield Central and Plainfield South, both 1-1, meet at 7. Then at 8:30, it's what in effect has become the overall championship game as Lockport from Pool A meets Romeoville from Pool B. Both are 2-0.
However, both have been challenged. In Wednesday's first game, Romeoville trailed Providence 30-27 late in the third quarter before tightening the defense en route to a 51-36 victory. And in Wednesday's second game, Lockport led Plainfield South only 39-35 early in the fourth quarter before going on a 9-0 run, eventually salting away a 53-44 victory.
In the evening's final game, neither side led by more than three points in a first half that ended in a 21-21 tie. Plainfield Central, taking advantage of JCA center Dan Dispenza's foul trouble and the Hilltoppers' rash of turnovers, went ahead 27-21 early in the third quarter.
But JCA scored the next six points to draw even again, and it was back-and-forth the rest of the way from there. Typical of the tournament's competitive nature.
"I'll say this, JCA came out with a game plan and executed it," Plainfield Central coach Josh Virostko said. "We got lucky tonight that they did not hit some of the shots that they got and I know they will hit down the road."
The admiration for the opponent was mutual.
"I have to take my hat off to Plainfield Central," JCA coach Mike O'Toole said. "They made the plays down the stretch that they needed to make to win the game. There were a lot of scrambles on the floor, where both teams had kids diving for the ball, especially there at the end, and they came up with it more than we did."
Winston Williams, a 6-6 junior forward who transferred to Plainfield Central from Fenwick, scored 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting. He was a thorn in the Hilltoppers' side in the second half, when Dispenza sat for more than a quarter with foul trouble.
"When we moved the ball well, that's what made it easier to get the ball inside to Winston," Virostko said. "He has all this talent, and he is a great kid, a great young man. But we need him to be more aggressive on the floor."
The aggressive juices get flowing tonight when Williams gets his first taste of a meeting a district rival.
"I think people really underestimated how good South is," Virostko said. "The biggest thing we look to do is compete with them, because I know they'll compete."
Virostko liked the way his team competed in Monday's loss to Lockport more than in the victory over JCA.
"To be honest, I felt better about our progress Monday than I did tonight," he said. "I thought our hustle, execution and focus were 10 times better than they were tonight. If we compete and execute like we did tonight, South will win decisively."
So what was the positive to come from Wednesday's game?
"I hope that tonight our guys did more learning on how to play together," Virostko said.
The box score showed JCA with a 29-18 rebounding advantage. Dispenza led with 8 despite playing only 19 minutes.
But the Hilltoppers also committed 24 turnovers to Central's 11.
"We did some good things," O'Toole said. "We showed pretty good composure in a tough spot. It was a tough decision on how long to keep Danny (Dispenza) on the bench, but I thought Josh Tischler came in and gave us a spark. And our defense kept us in a game that maybe we shouldn't have been in."
JCA senior guard Xavier Myers had some turnover issues but also led all scorers with 18 points. Tucker added 14.
"Xavier has a ton of ability and has worked extremely hard," O'Toole said. "It's showing in what he is doing for us."
The job for Myers and the rest of the Hilltoppers becomes more difficult when Dispenza sits as he is their main inside presence.
"Danny has to realize he is going to pick up some fouls, but he can't get fouls like the third one tonight, where he missed a shot and got frustrated," O'Toole said. "We have to use our fouls on rebounding and not on reaching in."
But as O'Toole said, that's the great thing about basketball. You can make some mistakes one day, and then you're right back at it.
"We want to win (tonight)," O'Toole said. "For us, it's about getting better. We'll go back to work (this morning) and work on the things we didn't do well tonight.
"That's the great thing about it, we get to come right back out here and play our arch rivals."
A full three-game card of those competitive rivalry games awaits local fans tonight. If there is anything definite, it's that no one is a clear-cut favorite, no one is guaranteed a victory.
That makes for a fun event.
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