Sandwich<\/a>, 54-42, and into Monday\u2019s 8:30 p.m. semifinal against Riley and the Mustangs.<\/p>\n\u201cWe have a bunch of players that can step up when needed, and a bunch of players that can score the ball,\u201d Zepeda said. \u201cOnce I saw the first one go in, it just kept going in and it felt great. The last time we played them I didn\u2019t play that good and yesterday I didn\u2019t play that good so I just knew I had to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zepeda indeed suffered through a 2-of-11 shooting night when the Reapers beat Sandwich, 56-54, on Dec. 9 on Cooper Beaty\u2019s buzzer beater. Zepeda scored just four points in Friday\u2019s win over Streator.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, JZ stepped up a lot and I\u2019ve been playing with him since seventh grade and he\u2019s been that good scorer for us,\u201d Beaty said. \u201cI\u2019m just glad he stepped up tonight and had that big game. We\u2019ve been looking for it and he really pulled us through in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it wasn\u2019t a tale of two halves. Impressively, Zepeda scored 11 in both, shooting 8-of-12 from the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI coached some of these kids when they were freshmen here at Plano and the great thing about them, and the toughest thing about them, is who to guard because you don\u2019t know who is going to get that 20 points for them,\u201d Sandwich coach Matt Chalfin said. \u201cJayden Zepeda, he was under control and poised and did a great job finishing tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zepeda\u2019s steal and lay-up was part of an 8-0 run that helped the Reapers gain some distance early into the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
His three-pointer gave them their first doubl- digit lead. His nifty drive and soft bank shot that followed 40 seconds later, gave the Reapers a 50-38 lead midway through the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe played great and when he gets downhill, he\u2019s tough to guard,\u201d Plano coach Kyle Kee said. \u201cHe\u2019s really crafty and uses his body, and for being so short he\u2019s able to get that extension and finish high off the backboard. It\u2019s nice to see and the confidence. A big night for him. We knew he had it and are just looking for that to be a little more consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandwich (4-8) trailed 37-36 with 1:47 left in the third quarter after Nolan Oros converted a pair of free throws.<\/p>\n
Plano (7-5) closed the third quarter with six straight points, holding Sandwich to just two field goals after Nick Michalek scored with 2:27 left in the third.<\/p>\n
Brayden Wachowski\u2019s lay-in cut Plano\u2019s lead to 45-38 with 5:58 left in the game, but Sandwich wouldn\u2019t score again until Braden Behringer\u2019s putback with 48 seconds left made it 52-40.<\/p>\n
\u201cGot to give as much credit as possible to Plano, they defend hard and tried to keep us out of the lane as much as they could,\u201d Chalfin said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t really get into our set with their pressing us and we didn\u2019t handle the pressure really well in that stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alan Contreras scored 12 points and Beaty had eight points and 10 rebounds for the Reapers.<\/p>\n
Michalek led Sandwich with 16 points, EJ Treptow added nine points and 15 rebounds and Behringer had 6 points. Sandwich resumes on Monday at 5:30 p.m. against Mendota.<\/p>\n
Plano forced 23 turnovers while committing 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get into trouble when we start gambling too much and try to take it out of their hands and steal a pass too late and give them angles,\u201d Kee said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been preaching stay solid and communicate. We didn\u2019t communicate well at all when we last played, but to do it tonight, especially in this atmosphere shows the progress we\u2019re making. We\u2019re excited for Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kaneland\u2019s Marshawn Cocroft, LaSalle-Peru\u2019s Marion Persich and Yorkville Christian\u2019s Jayden Riley each had huge offensive days to carry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[35359,160,162,161],"class_list":["post-102800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-illinois-high-school-boys-basketball","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}