Boys Basketball: ED Presniakovas sparks Plainfield South to OT win

Plainfield South’s Ed Presniakovas scored a career-high 33 points, two more than his previous best when he started as a freshman, while Alonzo Garrett and Dantrell Wright each made two key free throws in overtime to clinch an 85-81 victory Friday night over Plainfield North.

“It was just one of those games where my shots were falling,’’ Presniakovas said. “Everything was going my way.’’

That is until he fouled out with 1 minute, 36 seconds left in overtime and host South leading 81-76 in the Southwest Prairie Conference game.

“I was a little bit worried we might lose the game,’’ Presniakovas said. “My teammates stepped up, knocked down big shots. It ended up being a good night.’’

Garrett’s free throws made it 83-81 with 28.9 seconds to play and Wright hit two for an 85-81 lead with 13.7 seconds left after he had rebounded a North miss and was fouled.

The 6-foot-3 Presniakovas hit three three-pointers, was 4-of-4 from the line and drove to the hoop for seven of his 10 baskets.

“I saw I had a mismatch, the guy was smaller,’’ Presniakovas said. “I hit a couple threes. That opened me up to go inside. I just kept attacking until they stopped me.’’

“He made some real tough plays for us,’’ South coach Ken Bublitz said. “Obviously, he got us going on the offensive end and continued to do so throughout the game.’’

North rallied from a 69-58 deficit three minutes into the fourth quarter to force overtime. Marcus Fair’s fifth three-pointer tied it at 74 with 1:20 left in the fourth quarter. Each team missed a shot during the final minute.

Will Nixon finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds, Miles Snowden had 12 points and Garrett 11 for South (11-9, 6-4).

Fair led North (5-16, 4-5) with 25 points, Jeremy Bert had 22 and Kendal Interial and Trevor Stumpe each had 10 points.

“Nobody’s throwing in the towel,’’ North coach Nick DiFiorti said of rallying from the 11-point fourth-quarter hole. “That’s perseverance, trying to fight through that.’’

“North, they’re so scrappy,’’ Bublitz said. “They came at us with everything they had. I was impressed the way they fought back.’’

South won the first meeting 74-69 Dec. 6 at North.

© 2013 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.