Plainfield Central stuns Sandburg

LEMONT -- Accomplishing two of your three objectives in not bad, especially when the result is a telling victory over the No. 1 seed.

Plainfield Central High School rebounded the ball and created havoc with its defense often enough Saturday night to score a 59-53 victory over Sandburg, the No. 1 seed in the large-school division of the Lemont Christmas Classic.

Never mind that the Eagles turned up the pressure and went on a 14-0 run in a 2-minute span early in the fourth quarter, nearly wiping out the Wildcats' 18-point lead. Never mind because the Wildcats grabbed enough rebounds and made enough free throws down the stretch to advance into Monday's 7:15 p.m. large-school title game against Romeoville.

"I'm pretty proud of the guys," Plainfield coach Josh Virotsko said. "We came in wanting to do three things: rebound, create chaos with our defense and not turn the ball over when Sandburg turned up the pressure.

"We accomplished the first two. The third thing is still a work in progress."

Jeff Allen, the Wildcats' 6-foot-4 senior forward, battled Sandburg's inside size -- in particular, 6-6 bookends Mitch Thompson and Matt Tiggelaar -- and came away with a 17-point, 15-rebound effort. As vital as Allen was to the outcome, however, his teammates extended a 29-20 lead to 42-26 when he sat down after picking up his third foul with 5:59 remaining in the third quarter.

He returned to open the fourth quarter and scored the first points on a putback of his own miss, increasing the Wildcats' lead to 18 points. The next couple of minutes bordered on a nightmare, though, as Sandburg not only created turnovers but also heated up big time from the outside.

Allen was whistled for his fourth foul in the middle of the run, with 5:40 remaining. But Virotsko stayed with him, and he responded with 7 of his 15 rebounds in the fourth quarter.

"That was our plan, to go to the boards," Allen said. "Sandburg obviously has one of the biggest teams in the tournament. We came at it hard -- that was our No. 1 priority. Rebounding was probably the biggest thing in this win."

Plainfield (6-3), the fourth seed in the large-school division, outrebounded Sandburg (6-4) 34-30, a day after the Wildcats were outrebounded 42-28 in a victory over Hinsdale South.

"Jeff did a great job on the boards, and so did Arthur Gage," Virotsko said. "And Justin Scanlen and Derek Marks did a nice job, too."

Allen said another key was Plainfield extending the lead when he sat out 6 minutes with foul trouble. Senior Deadre Owens scored on a drive just before Allen's third foul and added 7 more points over the course of the third quarter, including a layup after stealing an inbounds pass. Marks, who finished with 11 points and blocked 3 shots, hit two big baskets in the surge, and senior guard Luis Baez scored on a drive across the lane.

"Those guys really stepped up when I came out," Allen said. "That showed me a lot, that I can trust our young team even more."

It's a young team that for the time being is without 6-6 junior forward Winston Williams, who is nursing a sprained knee.

"Winston is our best player. We're hoping to have him back by mid-January," Virotsko said. "We have two sophomores getting a lot of minutes (Marks and Scanlen). Hopefully it will be a learning experience."

Just about everyone in the Wildcats' camp enjoyed a good shooting night. They finished hitting 22-of-41 shots for 53.7 percent.

But there was that other matter -- Plainfield committed 23 turnovers, including 6 during the fourth-quarter scare.

"We weren't as ready for their pressure as we should have been," Wildcats senior guard Dontae King said. "We wanted to pound it in to get it to halfcourt, and we didn't do it."

"We were overdribbling," Virotsko said. "Our kids got excited, and the idea is to relax against pressure. You can't dribble in traffic with all those hands in there.

"But Sandburg is a quality opponent, and we knew it would be a war. We were not expecting a blowout. They came back on us, and now we have to learn from our mistakes."

King said the Wildcats are counting on a carryover effect.

"This gives us a lot of momentum going into Monday," he said. "They were supposed to beat us, and they didn't."