Late in the game against Herscher on Jan. 8, Peotone coach Shawn Bean yelled to his players, “You can be tired tomorrow.”
And the Blue Devils probably were after playing their typically sticky defense en route to a 28-25 home win.
Peotone held an opponent under 30 points for the fifth straight game and reached .500 for the first time all season. The Blue Devils moved to 9-9 overall and 4-2 in the Illinois Central Eight a year after a six-win season.
Peyton Bisping led the Blue Devils with 10 points, while freshman Payton Pape added seven points and five rebounds.
Peotone twice led by as much as nine and never trailed in the win.
Bisping, a senior point guard, is on board with Bean’s defense-first mindset.
“You need to just have (an) adrenaline kick,” Bisping said. “You really can’t get tired, otherwise you’re gonna get benched. And then on the bench you’re not gonna be too happy.
“So we always just need to put in our all. And then if you get a break, it’s 20 seconds. (Then) you get put right back in the game because it’s what’s best for our team.”
The Blue Devils were shorthanded but still forced 31 turnovers by the Tigers.
“We’re actually down two players,” Bean said. “Two players that get a lot of minutes — one of our starters and one kid that gets a lot of minutes.”
But that won’t change Bean’s gameplan.
“Our defense is our best offense and so we try to keep the tempo up,” he said. “Not many teams, we think, can go 10 deep like us. … If we do that, we’re going to pull it out in the fourth quarter.”
Bisping said the Blue Devils are totally bought into that plan.
“This year, our team has definitely found a rhythm together,” she said. “Last year we had a lot of sophomores playing varsity for the first time. And with that, none of us had experience because all the juniors were brought up (from the JV), too. … This year we’ve all kind of found a flow.”
And Pape has fit right in to playing against juniors and seniors.
“We brought her along slowly,” Bean said. “We tried to do the right thing mentally for her. Physically, she’s right there with every other kid. You just don’t want to put too much pressure on a kid that was playing eighth-grade basketball last year.”
Now Bisping and Pape are a capable guard tandem.
“(Bisping) is a senior leader,” Bean said. “… Between her and Pape, they’re our two primary ball-handlers. They are the two we trust with the ball in their hands late in the game, early in the game and everything in between.”