Balanced attack carries Plainfield Central

A double-double, specifically points and rebounds, is an impressive statistic because it measures the amount of activity a person exhibits on their team.

Plainfield Central, behind a strong second quarter and woeful shooting from Aurora Central Catholic, nearly had three players accomplish the feat in its 75-49 win in the third-place game at the 26th annual Waubonsie Valley Christmas Classic.

"That second quarter, our energy really wore them down," Plainfield coach Steve Lambert said. "We knew we had some size on them. We were just hoping our bigs would keep fighting for rebounds, both offensively and defensively and it worked out well for us tonight."

Wildcats' point guard Derrick Marks had 17 points and 10 rebounds and center Justin Scanlan had 17 points and eight rebounds, while Andre Norris came off the bench to score 18 and grab 10 rebounds as Plainfield (7-3) punished the undersized Chargers (5-8) into submission with a heavy dose of height and athleticism.

"We got it going right away," said Chargers' coach Nathan Drye, whose team was up 21-10 after a quarter. "Then second quarter, they're a really good team and we're not 10 points better than them so it's going to even out at some point and it did, but we could never get it back going again. We missed some point blank shots tonight we need to make if we're going to compete with them. We missed and then it kind of steamrolled from there."

Ryan Harreld had 13 points for ACC, getting 11 within the first 14 minutes of the game, while Robert DeMyers had 11, but Plainfield was deeper and stronger.

"We have to be better than that," Drye said. "We work on rebounding all the time, but I don't think you teach rebounding. It's just going and getting the ball. Certain guys just go get the ball when it's in the air. We just have to be more aggressive."

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