By Mark Gregory
Editorial Director
@Hear_The_Beard
mark@buglenewspapers.com
Everything seememd to be breaking the way Joliet Central wanted heading into last week’s Plainfield Nroth Sectional final.
A few upsets ahead of them aided the red hot Steelwomen who had won 11-straight games heading into the round of 16 matchup with a conference team they split with during the season.
After the best season Joliet Central became its own program again, the girls basketball team fell to Oswego in the Plainfield North Sectional final. (Photo by Mark Gregory)
Unfortunately for Central, the ball did not bounce its way, or in the basket as much as it needed as the season came to an end with a 48-28 loss to the Panthers.
“Oswego is a great team and played a great team and we struggled from the field,” Central coach coach Laura Brumfiel said. “We had a hard time scoring. They came out of the gate and hit some big shots and we had to play catch up. We played extremely hard.”
Despite the loss, what Central accomplished this season was something to be proud of.
With a 24-7 record, this year’s squad put up the most wins by a Central program since the Joliet Township team’s resplit in 2010.
It also claimed the first regional championship in the same period.
“This is a great group of kids —they love each other — and they have accmplished a lot,” Brumfiel said Thanksgiving tournament champions, regional champions, our record was very good and they kind of brought some excitement back to Joliet for basketball, so that was nice to see.”
Central has seven seniors leaving the program in Shawnton Brown, Harmony Burrell, Peninnah Davis, Reonah Epting, Annette Hymon, Destiny Medrano and Armoni Strickland, and what the group did for the program may not be noticed for a couple years down the road.
“We had seven seniors and they have been here since day one,” Brumfiel said. “A lot of them got moved up at a young age and took their lumps and they fought and they have been leaders. They have set the tone in the program to know how to act, how to play hard, all the little things. The young kids look up to these guys and they have shown them what it takes to win.
“In a few days. we will realize that we were regional champs and we had a great season.”