By Dennis Bowling
Peotone sophomore Brandon Weiss was not about to let a painful left leg achilles issue keep him from his appointed rounds. Weiss turned in a very gutsy effort on January 27.
Weiss, a very promising point guard, with exceptional accuracy, registered a team-high 21 points, which included five treys, through three quarters of play, to help Peotone beat Momence 62-54 in a nonconference contest in Momence.
Weiss did not practice with the Blue Devils on Thursday. He didn’t start the game against Momence. He was doing some pre-game stretching prior to the contest. He came into the first quarter with three minutes to go. He came onto the court, his first trey swished the net, and that tied the score at 9-all. He went on to have a great game.
“This was a big game,” said Weiss. “I just wanted to play. We just had to be tough. We had to come together and win.”
“I really did well,” he said. “Miles (Heflin) had a great game. He played a huge role in our win.”
Peotone coach Ron Oloffson enjoyed watching Weiss and Heflin play.
“Brandon just got hot,” he said. “He can really shoot the ball. He is capable of doing this. He had an awesome game.”
“Miles is just a dominating player,” he said. “He can do this every time out. He needs to be more active for us.”
At half time, Heflin was really struggling. He had only one basket. A Weiss trey gave Peotone a 26-24 lead. In the third quarter, Heflin had six points. A Weiss bucket gave the Blue Devils a 44-34 lead at the close of the stanza.
In the fourth quarter, with the outcome of the game hanging in the balance, Heflin was in an unstoppable mode. Heflin scored 11 points of his 19 to help the Blue Devils turn back the Redskins.
“We were just in a zone defense and I was in foul trouble,” he said. “In the second half, I had two fouls.”
“We just started to run our offense,” he said. “I was able to get my shooting trust back. I saw that the run way to the basket was open. I just took off and dunked the ball. It was very nice.”
That dunk put the Blue Devils fans into a cheering mode. Earlier in the fourth quarter, Peotone had a 48-44 lead. The Blue Devils outscored Momence by a 10-0 count for a 58-44 advantage.
It all started with a Heflin three-point play for a 51-48 lead. Heflin made a pair of free throws to extend the advantage to 53-44. A Heflin picturesque dunk made it 55-44. The Blue Devils Wil Graffeo (8 points) trey made it 58-44, which led to the win.
Heflin was quite pleased with the play of Weiss.
“Brandon did a great job of shooting the ball and playing defense,” he said. “He helped us a great deal.”
The Blue Devil senior Lucas Gesswein had nine points and 13 rebounds. Peotone coach Oloffson was very happy with the play of Gesswein.
In the junior varsity contest, Peotone beat Momence 26-24. The Blue Devils Ruben Velasco (12 points) was the hero. He hit back-to-back treys to help win the game.