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Sports

Scanlan Comes Up Big for Plainfield Central in Win Over Romeoville

Wildcats fight back in second half to earn comeback victory in final game of regular season.

Plainfield Central coach Steve Lamberti could only shake his head in disgust after the first half. 

He shook his head again after the game, but this time it was with a smile.

“The first half we played slow," he said. "What I mean by that is we just didn’t have the mental focus, we didn’t have the reaction and that leads to turnovers and sloppy play."

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Lamberti said his Wildcats did a much better job of playing to their capabilities in the second half, "playing to our quickness and doing things the way we want to do and it worked out well for us.”

Plainfield Central overcame a 10-point halftime deficit to defeat Romeoville 56-47 Friday night. 

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The first quarter ended with the Wildcats in front by six points and with 5:13 left in the half they led 20-16. 

That’s when things started to unravel. 

Antwan Hill found Clive Warburton for a layup and Romeoville went on a 12-0 run over the next five minutes—Hill provided the spark for the Spartans during that second quarter, scoring five points, grabbing two rebounds and getting two steals. 

Romeoville switched to a full-court press, which caused Plainfield to turn the ball over six times before their next basket, a free throw by Justin Scanlan with 19.2 seconds remaining that cut the Spartan lead to seven points.

But Devin Purnell’s three-pointer at the halftime buzzer ended any chance Plainfield had of gaining momentum and Romeoville went to the break leading 31-21.

“We just came out with fire," Hill said. "We knew we were going to have to come out and play hard, no matter what, and that’s what we came out with.  We came out with more intensity than they did in the first half." 

The second half began with the two teams trading hard earned points.  Plainfield went to the free throw line 15 times in the third quarter but only made seven. 

After Hill’s jumper gave Romeoville a nine-point lead with 2:30 left in the quarter, Plainfield senior Matt Hund came off the bench and injected some much needed energy into his team.  Over the final two minutes of the quarter the big man grabbed three rebounds, had two blocked shots and missed a tip-dunk that almost sent the visiting fans into a frenzy.

Plainfield opened the fourth quarter on a 9-2 run that gave them the lead, and Romeoville’s Donald Miller scored on a driving layup to tie the game at 44 with a little over three minutes left.  Scanlan then made the biggest play of the night, scoring on a rebound and putback while drawing a foul.  Scanlan made the free throw to complete the three-point play and Plainfield would not surrender the lead again.

“Coming out at halftime we just wanted to get out to a good start.  We lost to them last time so we kinda wanted some revenge.  So we just wanted to come out and beat them,” Scanlan said after the game. He finished the game with 16 points and 7 rebounds.

This was the final regular season game for both teams and despite another second half letdown Romeoville coach Jeff Bambule feels good about his team going into the playoffs.

“We’ve been playing well lately,” Bambule said.  “We play Thornwood and they’re definitely a tough team but we can beat them.  And if we win then we get [Plainfield Central] again on Wednesday night.  So we’re not done yet.”

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