By Dennis Bowling

Peotone senior standout Miles Heflin turned in another remarkable overall performance. Heflin feels that the Blue Devils need to work on many things. That was so true on January 13.

Heflin, a 6-foot-4 forward, finished with 21 points and hauled down five rebounds. Wilmington edged Peotone 46-40 in an Illinois Central Eight conference play in Peotone.

The Blue Devils fall to 9-7 overall and 4-2 in the conference. Wilmington is 9-5, 4-3.

“We did come out strong in the first half of the game,” said Heflin. “Our defense was working.”

“We need to rebound better,” he said. “Our offense needs to be better too. We have to get back on defense in our transition play.”

“We had some of our players get into foul trouble,” he said. “We were just fouling too much. We have to learn from this loss. We have to finish stronger.”

The Blue Devils started the game on a very strong note. They held an 18-10 lead at the close of the first quarter. Heflin did lots of heavy lifting, he scored 10 points.

In the second quarter, Heflin cooled off. He scored a meager four points. Following his pair of baskets, Peotone held a 27-19 lead.

Moments later, the Blue Devils Landen Hamm had a rebound basket for a 27-24 lead. They had a 27-26 half time lead.

To start the third quarter, Peotone’s Wil Graffeo was attempting a trey shot and fouled on the play. He made two of three free throws for a 29-26 lead.

Moments later, a Graffeo pass led to the Blue Devils Lucas Gesswein’s (6 points, 5 rebounds) bucket, which pushed the Peotone margin to 31-26.

Moments later, a Heflin layup bucket tied the score at 33-all. A Wildcat basket gave them a 35-33 lead at the close of the stanza.

With 6:14 to go in the fourth quarter, the Blue Devils Brandon Weiss’ (7 points) bucket gave Peotone a 36-35 lead.

A Graffeo shot missed the basket. He was whistled for his fourth foul.

The Wildcats had the lead. Heflin was whistled for his third foul. The Blue Devils Hunter Becker’s bucket cut the Wilmington margin, with 20 seconds to go in the contest. A Wilmington basket won the game and made it 46-40.

In the loss to Wilmington, Peotone Coach Ron Oloffson was upset with the setback to the Wildcats.

“We were just giving up too many easy looks to the basket,” he said. “No one else could score a basket for us. Miles is doing a great job. It is a frustrating loss. Our turnovers are really hurting us.”

In the junior varsity contest, Wilmington beat Peotone, 48-37. Ruben Velasco led the Blue Devils with 18 points. Nate Wehrmann had five points for Peotone.