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Sports

Girls Basketball: Plainfield East Plays to its Strength in Win over JT West

Bengals score game's first eight points en route to 53-43 victory on Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Hoops.

JOLIET–The strength of the Plainfield East girls basketball team is defense.

The Bengals played to their strength during the final game of the second Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Hoops Monday.

The Bengals pitched a shutout for the first five minutes and never looked back, posting a 53-43 victory over host Joliet West.

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“They felt real confident coming in and they showed that, especially early in the game,” Plainfield East coach Levon Brown said. “As a coaching staff, our biggest fear was having two days off. We tried to give them a little break because of finals, and we don’t want them getting burned out mentally.”

Plainfield East (6-11) showed no ill effects, scoring the first eight points of the game. Nina Maggio found Deni Owikoti for a layup and an 8-0 lead with 4:17 to play in the first quarter.

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Welisha Gavin’s three-pointer gave the Bengals a 13-3 with 2:40 to go in the first period. A steal and layup by Bre Meeks gave Plainfield East a 15-4 lead after a quarter.

“We weren’t intense at the start, fell behind and played from behind the rest of the game,” Joliet West coach Kevin Michaels said. “That seems to be the story of our season. We’ll have one quarter that kills us. It’s usually the first or third quarter. Today, it was the first quarter. We’re trying to break free from that. It’s tough.”

Maggio’s free throw at 5:30 of the second quarter made it 18-5. Joliet West cut the lead to 24-18 late in the second quarter behind the play of Khadija Cooley.

Gavin’s jumper at the horn allowed Plainfield East to take 28-18 lead into the break. Cooley scored first five points of the third quarter, cutting the lead to 28-23.

“We got too comfortable,” Brown said. “The girls relaxed too much and that’s something we have to work on. The great thing about this was, win or lose, we knew we had a game (Tuesday vs. Plainfield North). I’m anxious to see how we handle that.”

Dominique Hartsfield’s basket gave Plainfield East 33-24 lead midway through the quarter. The Bengals settled for a 36-28 lead after three.

The Tigers (3-12) were no closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Hartsfield scored 15 points to lead Plainfield East. Meeks came up with eight points and Owikoti chipped in seven points and a team-best 10 rebounds.

Cooley led all scorers with 25 points for the Tigers.

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