Farmer to the fore

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PLAINFIELD -- It wasn't exactly the way you draw it up.

Then again, there is no real way to draw this one up.

Romeoville High School's boys basketball team was out of timeouts with 10.1 seconds left and trailing 50-49. Plainfield Central's Jeff Allen, one of the Wildcats' best free throw shooters, was at the line for a 1-and-1. Allen made the first shot, then missed the second. Romeoville's Devon Hodges came down with the rebound and fired an outlet pass to Alan Farmer.

Farmer embarked on a fast and furious scramble up the court before passing to teammate Bo Goshorn in the right corner. Goshorn contemplated a shot, but then passed back to Farmer at the top of the key. Farmer had just enough time to launch an attempt at a game-winning 3-pointer, which found nothing but net and gave the Spartans (10-12, 6-5) an improbable 52-51 Southwest Prairie Conference victory.

"We worked a little on that situation last week," Romeoville coach Jeff Bambule said. "You want to get it to the guy who has the best chance of making the shot. Alan got it to Bo and Bo got it right back to Alan.

"Alan has hit a lot of big shots for us this year."

Farmer could not think of a bigger one.

"This is the first time I've had a game-winning shot like that," he said. "Bo gave me a good pass."

For much of the fourth quarter, as Romeoville continued to rally from a defecit that reached 14 in the second quarter, it was Farmer delivering the good passes.

Trailing 44-41, Farmer found Hodges (10 points, 9 rebounds) alone underneath for a dunk, then dished to a wide-open Nathan Johnson on the block for an easy score that gave the Spartans their first lead with 4:35 to play.

"We want to look for the open guy and give it up when someone is open," Farmer said. "It's easier to hit an open shot, that's for sure."

The win comes a short 24 hours after the Spartans lost an 81-71 decision to Morris, the Redskins' first conference win.

"I think the best thing for us after a night like Friday night was to get right back on the floor," Bambule said. "We looked at this part of the schedule, when we have four games in seven days, and wondered what we were going to do. But after Friday night, it was real good for us to get back out there and get a win like this."

That couldn't have been his thoughts early on, as Plainfield Central (14-8, 6-5) raced out to a 23-13 lead at the end of the first quarter and extended it to 29-15 midway through the second. Deadre Owens scored all 12 of his points in the first half as the Wildcats built a 34-23 halftime lead.

"It would have been easy for us to pack it in or give up after getting behind early," Bambule said. "But the kids didn't quit playing, they listened to what we said and, for the most part, did it."

What they did in the second half was shake off a game and a half of bad vibes and put them in the rearview mirror.

The defensive intensity picked up after halftime, and the Spartans went on an 8-0 run to start the third quarter, cutting the Central lead to 34-31.

Winston Williams then scored two straight baskets for Central, pushing the lead back to 38-31. The two teams traded baskets before Romeoville's Demarius Miller made a free throw and then threw down a fast-break dunk to cut it to 40-36. After another basket by Williams, Earl Bell, who led Romeoville with 14 points, hit a free throw, then foreshadowed things to come by beating the buzzer with a runner in the lane to trim it to 42-39 entering the fourth quarter.

"You have to hand it to Romeoville," Plainfield Central coach Josh Virostko said. "Their energy level stayed high and they stayed together and we allowed them to dictate the tempo in the second half.

"We got a little too jump-shot happy, especially in the second half. We got the ball into the paint three times in the second half, and we made two baskets. Also, we got away with not shooting free throws well Friday night against Minooka, but that came back and bit us in the behind tonight."

After Romeoville took its first lead, the Wildcats answered with a bucket by Justin Scanlen (2 points, 9 rebounds). A free throw by Hodges tied it with 4:06 left and no one scored until Farmer (10 points) hit a pair of free throws with 1:33 left. Derek Marks hit a free throw for Central before Allen scored in the lane, was fouled and made his free throw for a 50-48 lead with 59.2 seconds left.

With 11.9 remaining, Bell made 1-of-2. Allen rebounded the miss and was fouled, setting up the fateful final seconds.

"Getting a win like this sure makes the weekend better," Farmer said.

"This is the type of win we needed," Bambule said. "We've told the guys they are capable of being a good team, if they do what we want and they do what is necessary. When we do that, we look pretty good."