Chicago-Area High School Football News and Scores | Season Pass

It took a little while for Kentwan Steptore, Aaron Jordan and their Plainfield East teammates to pick up the pace Friday night in their Southwest Prairie game at Romeoville.

But when they did, partially sparked by halfcourt pressure and turnovers, the Bengals took control in the second quarter and rolled to an 80-41 victory.

“That’s the way my teams have played in the past,’’ East coach Branden Adkins said. “These guys are just starting to figure that out. We want to create easy baskets off our defensive pressure.’’

Down 7-2 early in the game, East put together a 14-0 run and led 18-10 after the first quarter. Steptore ended the period with a steal and drive to the basket, and opened the second quarter with the same play and result.

That started a 10-0 run, aided by four Romeoville turnovers, which gave East a commanding 28-10 lead with almost six minutes left in the half.

“Me being a senior, I’ve got to get us going, make my easy shots and make big shots,’’ Steptore said. “When we first started the game we were slow, not energetic at all. My job was to get us going.’’

“He’s really turned it up since Christmas,’’ Adkins said. “He’s had some real nice games for us. He’s playing physical. He’s playing like a senior should.’’

Jordan led East (7-9, 4-2) with 15 points, 10 in the first half when East built a 43-22 advantage.

Nick Novak contributed 14 points, Steptore had nine and Myles Ward and Jordan Reed each had eight points off the bench. Five different players combined to hit 10 three-pointers.

“We had some guys who had nice games,’’ Adkins said. “We’re playing really well as a team. We had a nice win on Tuesday and it carried over.’’

Rashad Steele led Romeoville (4-13, 0-6) with 11 points and Domas Zdanevicius had eight.

“We started fairly well, slowed them down a little bit with our zone,’’ Romeoville coach Jeff Bambule said. “Right now handling pressure is a weakness for us and they’re pretty good at that.’’