A case of 'Marshall' law

Joliet Township forward Jamell Tyson drives past Plainfield South's Eric Devine and takes the ball hard to the basket Tuesday night during the Steelmen's 56-43 victory over the Cougars. Cutline
(John Patsch/Staff photographer)

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JOLIET -- The Plainfield South High School boys basketball team found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time Tuesday night.

All because it was Jamell Tyson's first game of 2009.

Click to enlarge image

Plainfield South's Donald Hughes (left) lofts a short jumper over the reach of JT's Gary Reese (23).

"It's my New Year's resolution to be more aggressive," the 6-foot-1 Joliet Township senior forward said after scoring 24 points to lead the Steelmen past South 56-43 in a nonconference matchup at JT Central.

"Coach (Luke Yaklich) told me at Pontiac (the Steelmen's holiday tournament) that I have to be more aggressive."

Oh, the left-hander was every bit of that, powering and flying to the basket time and time again, with little or no regard for his body.

"Yeah, Jamell," Yaklich said with a smile. "When he gets his shoulders turned and goes north and south to the basket, you expect something good to happen."

Tyson is known as "Marshall" in the JT camp. The reason is that after spending his freshman year at Providence-St. Mel and then at Marshall, he transferred to JT for his sophomore year.

Plenty of hard work later, he has shown he can be among this area's most devastating players.

Tyson came in averaging a shade under 10 points per game with a high of 15 against Plainfield North in the championship game of the Plainfield North Tournament. Against Plainfield South, he hit 8-of-14 shots and 7-of-11 free throws for his 24 points.

Much of his offense -- and much of the offense generated for most of the night -- came compliments of what aggressive man-to-man defense triggered.

"I was real happy with the third quarter," Yaklich said. "We held them to 8 points and we had good intensity. It was a solid second half defensively.

"The game looked choppy, but that will happen when you're not shooting consistently well. We played hard in the second half, played through our offensive woes."

As ordered.

"Coach told us at halftime that we had to pick up the defense; I agreed with that," Tyson said before complimenting the Steelmen's steady point guard. "Wesley Powell gave us the energy we needed," he said.

JT (8-4) was without its widebody inside, Donnell White, along with Kevon Craig for a practice violation. Anthony Shoemaker, the team's leading scorer, scored 4 in a first half that ended with Joliet leading 28-22, and he did not play in the second half.

Still, the Steelmen were in the driver's seat much of the night.

After South (6-7) crawled within 32-28 when 6-2 junior forward Christian Davis scored 6 of his team-high 19 points in the first 2:11 of the second half, JT went on a burst to put it away. A Tyson 3-pointer, a Powell drive, a Tim Waszak jumper and two Gary Reese free throws later, the Steelmen were on top 41-28 late in the third quarter, and they maintained a similar cushion the rest of the way.

In fact, the Cougars were limited to 3 points total in a span of 8:38 from early in the third quarter through early in the fourth.

"We would rather play an up-and-down style, but JT was better at it than we were," South coach Ken Bublitz said. "They did a good job trapping on our first pass across halfcourt. We also had trouble finishing. They defended us very well without fouling."

"We thought we had to slow them down in our main defense," Tyson said.

Despite the pace and physical nature of the game, Bublitz noted that JT committed only 3 fouls through three quarters.

"You have to give them credit," he said. "They played very hard without one of their best players (White). I thought our kids did a great job making that run in the third quarter, but then their offensive rebounding wound up being they key for them the rest of the quarter."

Davis, whose previous high was 14 points against TF South in the championship game of the Medieval Classic, scored his 19 on 6-of-10 shooting and 7-of-8 free throws.

"Christian went to the basket strong," Bublitz said. "He attacked."

Luke Gundersen chipped in with 8 points and Davis and Gundersen each grabbed 6 rebounds as South stayed within 26-25 on the boards.

Powell and Reese scored 8 points apiece for JT, and Reese led the rebounders with 6. But defensive intensity was the key.

"We've been playing up and down so far this year," Yaklich said. "We have some big games coming up, and now we want to keep building momentum until regional time."

"If we stay aggressive like this as a team, if we all stay on the same page, I think we can play with any of the teams we have coming up," Tyson said.