Boys Basketball: Plainfield North progressing

Updated: February 7, 2012 7:55PM

Plainfield North had a few moments during its loss to Plainfield South last week that proved the struggling Tigers will have better days ahead.

First, North’s student section shouted a positive reminder after Trevor Stumpe sliced through the defense for a first-quarter layup: “He’s a freshman.’’

Later, North showed some moxie by rallying from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter to force overtime. The Tigers held South to 12 points in the quarter while 12 of their 18 fourth-quarter points came from Stumpe and juniors Marcus Fair and Kendal Interial.

“We executed some during crunch-time situations,’’ North coach Nick DiForti said. “Before, we just weren’t mentally ready for that.’’

North was coming off back-to-back Southwest Prairie wins over Oswego East and Romeoville that raised its record to 5-15.

“We’ve seen this team develop,’’ DiForti said. “We had issues with chemistry. Those are gone.”

North will lose Jeremy Bert, Matt Fenza, Jarell Guice, Jamal Robinson and Ryan Porter to graduation. In addition to Stumpe, Fair and Interial, other players who figure to be counted on next season are Kurt Palandech, Andy Schindel, Corey Evak and Kiefer Ketelhut — all juniors this season — as well as freshman Jake Nowak.

“We’ve done a very good job staying the course, the kids have,’’ DiForti said.

“It’s tough,’’ Bert said. “At the same time, we’ve played a lot of really good teams. We feel it will help us going into the rest of our schedule.’’

Around the Southwest Prairie

The best team not in the Top 5? That’s easy: Minooka.

The defensive-minded Indians nearly handed Plainfield East (20-1, 10-0) its first conference loss Friday, taking the Bengals into overtime thanks to key three-pointers from junior Jake Hogen.

Minooka (17-7, 8-2) played Oswego on Tuesday and continues its conference schedule Friday at Plainfield Central.

Plainfield South senior Ed Presniakovas scored a career-high 33 points in Friday’s 85-81 win over North before he fouled out in overtime.

“I was real happy with our kids because when Eddie went out, that’s a big mental thing as well as a physical thing,’’ coach Ken Bublitz said. “We were able to weather that storm.’’

It’s unlikely defending conference champion South (11-9, 6-4) will repeat.

“It would have to work out really, really well,’’ Bublitz said. “We told our kids, ‘You’ve got to concern yourselves with what’s coming, what’s next.’ We’ve got to put ourselves in position to have the best possible record.”

Looking ahead to state

Speaking of the best possible record, the IHSA is expected to release seeds in the Class 3A and 4A sectionals Thursday and the pairings with bracket layout Friday.

Plainfield East likely will get the No. 1 seed in the Class 4A East Aurora Sectional, which will have regionals at Metea Valley, Downers Grove South, Neuqua Valley and Oswego.

In Class 2A, Seneca is the No. 2 seed behind Herscher at the Fighting Irish regional that starts Feb. 20. Seneca will play in the semifinals Feb. 22 against the winner of the Coal City-Reed-Custer game.

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