Former Griswold assistant leads Plainfield past his former team
Midway through the fourth quarter of a rock-em-sock-em boys basketball battle between border rivals Plainfield and Griswold, it was the Panthers who delivered the 3-point daggers during a decisive spurt.
Yup, what a difference a year makes.
After winning just two games last season, Plainfield equaled that win total with a 71-62 ECC Division III victory over defending league champion Griswold on Thursday night at Plainfield High School.
More: New coach has Norwich Free Academy boys basketball ready to speed the tempo up
More: Who is on The Bulletin Preseason Boys Basketball Dream Team?
“It feels good,” Plainfield’s first-year coach Josh Adamec said. “The boys played really hard. These guys are excited. They come everyday to practice and to the games enthusiastically and it just shows.”
It wasn’t an easy game for Adamec to coach.
Adamec has spent the last 12 seasons on Griswold coach Rob Mileski’s staff and was a big part of an incredible season a year ago when the senior-laden Wolverines captured the ECC tournament championship and finished one game short in the CIAC Division IV semifinals (a loss to eventual champion Cromwell).
“Those kids on that side, I still think of them as my kids,” Adamec said. “It was a tough thing to play against them. I want the best for them, just not twice a year when they play us.”
Adamec has big shoes to fill as he replaces longtime Panthers coach Bob Arremony, who retired with over 500 career wins.
The Panthers (2-1) opened their season with a 61-27 victory over Ellis Tech but last season’s shooting woes resurfaced in a 50-44 loss against Putnam.
“It helps when you’re throwing the ball in the hoop,” Adamec said. “We shot around 25 percent from the field against Putnam and it’s tough to win a game like that. Tonight we made some shots and executed a little bit better.”
With Griswold in town, and a large crowd filling the stands, Plainfield saved its best for last in the entertaining see-saw battle.
Leading 52-50 midway through the fourth quarter, Panthers guard Brenden McCool (11 points) drained a top-of-the key 3-pointer. Brayden Marquis (12 points) and Jake Taylor followed with baskets and Marquis drained another long trey to cap a 10-0 spurt, giving the Panthers a 62-50 cushion with 3:20 remaining.
Griswold’s Nick Watters converted a fastbreak layup but McCool answered with a 3-point bomb, Plainfield’s eighth trey, for a 65-52 lead with 1:50 left.
“When it was a tight game in the fourth quarter we called a few of our sets,” Adamec said. “We don’t run a whole lot but the guys got into it and we got good looks out of it. And defensively we were able to keep them at bay.”
Kaiden Kazlauskas, Kolby Mills, and Matt Perea each had 12 points for the Wolverines. Griswold, which lost a core group of seniors to graduation from a team that went 22-4 last season, fell to 0-2 with Windham looming on Dec. 27.
Panthers forward Brayden Rizer led all scorers with 15 points. Keyan Mayernik had 14 points, while Taylor finished with 13 points.
“We still have to work on some of the Xs and Os and some of the fundamental stuff and we’ll build on it,” Adamec said. “They struggled last year in those heated contests so everyday we’re going to work on things that will make us successful. We’re going to get better everyday.”
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Plainfield boys basketball rebounds with new coach Josh Adamec
