Owens powers Plainfield C.

Plainfield Central's Derek Marks (right) drives past Romeoville's Bo Goshorn on Monday night.
(Larry Kane/For the Herald-News)

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LEMONT -- The little man in the backcourt picked a big time to find his jump shot.

Deadre Owens broke out of a season-long scoring slump in Plainfield Central's 57-50 victory over Romeoville in the large-school division championship game at the 31st annual Lemont Christmas Classic on Monday night.

Owens, a 5-foot-6 senior guard, scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half as the Wildcats built a 15-point third-quarter lead and then withstood a furious charge from the Spartans in a boys basketball game where late-drama made up for some poor shooting and slopping ballhandling.

Central (7-3) led 36-21 after Jeff Allen took a pass from Dontae King and scored with 6:11 remaining in the third quarter. Allen went on to score a team-high 16 points for the Wildcats. He also grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds and made a nuisance of himself on the low post.

Romeoville (7-3) couldn't stop Allen or keep the Wildcats off the boards in the first half and spotted Central leads of 24-11 and 28-15.

Finally, in the second half, the Spartans started to battle back behind the play of Demarius Miller (18 points, 8 rebounds, 5 steals), Earl Bell (13 points, 9 rebounds) and Devon Hodges (12 points, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks).

Hodges hit two free throws to cap a 9-2 run as Romeoville pulled within 45-41 with 3:54 left. And, just when it looked like the Spartans might pull off another comeback victory, up stepped Central's little man.

Owens scored off a feed from Derek Marks on a fastbreak layup to extend the Wildcats' lead to 47-41. Then, after Miller rained down a 3 for Romeoville, Owens answered with a corner 3-ball of his own to give the 'Cats a 50-43 lead and the momentum they needed to hold off the Spartans.

"We were trying to slow it up and I felt like we all had the pressure on us," Owens said. "But we got that steal and the breakaway and that set it off. When I got that layup and then a minute later made that 3, that raised our momentum.

"And then our defense shut them down. They were done."

Central will face Providence St. Mel or Westmont at 8 p.m. today in the tournament's overall championship game. St. Mel and Westmont squared off for the small-school championship late Monday night.

Romeoville plays the loser for third place at 6 p.m. today.

"You've got to give them credit, man," Romeoville coach Jeff Bambule said. "I've watched them in their first two games, and they're really playing hard. Their coach (Josh Virostko) is doing a great job with them. And they just came out stomped us right off the bat."

Central outrebounded Romeoville 28-14 in the first half and 55-38 for the game. Arthur Gage, a 6-8 junior, grabbed 10 rebounds. Marks had 8 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals.

"Well, the whole thing is the whole tournament, if you've seen us play all three games, we've had the lead and we've let teams back in," Virostko said. "But we're learning how to win at the end of the game, I guess.

"We need to take care of the ball better when the heat goes up. And we got better today than we were against Sandburg (Central beat the Eagles 59-53). If you watched the whole Sandburg game, there was a 14-point run in about 2 minutes. It wasn't quite as bad tonight, but still we need to work on closing out games.

"But I was proud of our effort early. I thought the defensive intensity is what the set the tone early. And we got the ball inside. They're a great rebounding team. I was surprised we were able to outrebound them early. That obviously changed later on, and that's why they were able to make a run."

Central has played the entire tournament without 6-6 junior forward Winston Williams, who is not expected back from an injury until mid-January. Allen, a 6-4 senior, continues to pick up the slack in his absence.

"He's off-balance, always a little bit unorthodoxed," Virostko said. "We've worked with him on his balance since his freshman year. But one thing about him, he's so off balance I think he fakes the other guy out sometimes.

"But what he does do is he plays hard. And plays with his heart. Sometimes he doesn't use his head, but if you play with your heart, sometimes that can be enough."

Allen scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half. He made 7-of-17 shots.

"Just knowing now that we haven't been to the championship game here in four years, it's huge to get this win," Allen said. "It's something memorable. It's my last year. Our team's working hard right now. Everyone thought we were going to be the underdog for every game.

"Hinsdale South -- they were the champions last year. Sandburg was the No. 1 seed. Romeoville was the No. 2 seed. So, this is huge. I'm really happy. To me, I missed a lot of shots. But if you keep working hard, it's going to be there."

Romeoville was limited to 17-of-67 shooting (25.4 percent). The Spartans made 13-of-27 free throws (48.1 percent). Central hit 22-of-55 shots (40 percent) and 12-of-25 free throws (48 percent).

"We told them this is a much-improved team from St. Francis (when Romeoville last saw Plainfield Central at the WJOL Classic)," Bambule said. "And they don't have their best player (Williams). So, that just goes to show you that every game in our conference is going to be a war."