Extra Points: Plainfield East Starting to Gain Respectability

The Plainfield East boys basketball team eclipsed an important milestone for the third-year program Wednesday at East.

For the first time in its history, Plainfield East beat District 202 and Southwest Prairie Conference rival Plainfield Central 60-48.

“That’s the first time we’ve beaten Central and we beat North for the first time last night,” Plainfield East coach Branden Adkins said. “We’re playing better basketball. We’ve limited our turnovers, we’ve been rebounding a lot better and sharing the ball.

“We broke the streak of losing to North and Central, our in town rivals,” 6-fooot-8 junior center Brian Bennett said. “Now, we have to finish off the season against (Plainfield) South in the next couple of weeks. It’s about keeping this run going heading into the playoffs so we can make a good run there.”

The win over Central came 24 hours after the Bengals (12-9, 5-5 in the SPC) beat Plainfield North for the first time. Wednesday’s win also meant Plainfield East had defeated all three District 202 teams.

“I think we have a bunch of confidence and we’re earning respect,” Bennett said. “Last night built our confidence. We knew we had to come back tonight just as hard.”

“We’ve preached to them all year long,” Adkins said. “When we have success, we have eight or nine guys in the scorebook.”

Nine players scored for Plainfield East, led by Brian Bennett’s 21 points and eight rebounds. He made just 3-of-7 from the free throw line, but came up with one of his best games of the year off the bench.

“He’s finishing around the rim and picking up some more rebounds,” Adkins said of Bennett.

“The 21 points are thanks to my teammates,” Bennett said. “They were finding me open. I left a few points out there on the free throw line, and I’m going to work on that. Tonight, I had more of an urgency to get rebounds more than I had earlier in the season. I’m going to try and keep that going.”

Jawan Straughter added nine points and was the point man in the defensive effort against Boise State University recruit Derrick Marks of Plainfield Central.

The 6-foot-3 guard had 12 points for the Wildcats, who were playing their third road game in six days.

“Jawan, I can’t say enough about how hard he worked to guard Marks,” Adkins said. “Myles (Walters) did well against him, too. You have to do special things with special players and Marks is a special player.”

Adkins is hoping the Bengals are in for something special in their third year of varsity play.

“I think they are growing as individuals and as a team,” Adkins said. “We’re utilizing each other more than ever before and guys are coming off the bench doing some good things. I’m just so happy for these guys. They’ve really been working hard. There have been some ups and downs and that’s the peaks and valleys of a basketball season.”

“It’s fun to see how everybody’s gelling and how good we are as a team,” Bennett said. “It’s all about hard work. We wanted to gel earlier in the season, but things didn’t go our way. Now, things are going our way.”

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