Boys Basketball: Romeoville edges Plainfield South

Updated: January 7, 2012 12:21AM

Romeoville returned to Southwest Prairie Conference play Friday with near shooting perfection in a 71-67 homecourt victory over Plainfield South.

The Spartans (5-11, 1-3) made 8-of-9 field-goal attempts in the first period in their first conference game since Dec. 16. Romeoville had success from all over the court, including three three-point baskets, and had six different players score in the opening period.

“It was a great start, and I think they missed some shots they normally make and we took advantage of that,” Romeoville coach Jeff Bambule said. “We asked ourselves, ‘Are we better than we were Dec. 1?’ and we definitely are. There is no night off in this conference.”

The defense was nearly as good as the offense for the Spartans, who contested inside shots, which forced South into long jumpers. South missed its first nine attempts of the second period, and was just 3-for-13 (23 percent) in each of the first two periods.

Romeoville pulled away as South struggled to get anything to fall. A layup by center Ryan Hurtado, off an interior feed from fellow post Uchenna Akuba (12 points, 12 rebounds), gave the Spartans a 33-10 lead with three minutes left in the half.

Even when the Romeoville shooting cooled in the third period (it was 6-of-15), the Spartans had three baskets on offensive rebounds. Two were by Jaylen Nunn, who had nine of his game-high 22 points in the quarter.

Ed Presniakovas scored 20 points for South (6-7, 2-2). The Cougars cut an 18-point fourth-period deficit to five with two minutes left.

“I was real pleased we fought all the way to the end,” South coach Ken Bublitz said. “But Romeoville did and excellent job and deserves a lot of credit.

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.