Jaiden Lee’s big second half leads shorthanded Joliet West past Hillcrest

Saturday in the Romeoville Shootout at Lewis University junior Jaiden Lee turned in a gutty, aggressive performance to lead No. 14 Joliet West past No. 22 Hillcrest 57-55. 

Joliet West vaulted into and up the rankings this season behind the spectacular play of senior Jamere Hill. He evolved from almost a complete unknown to a Toledo recruit in just over a month.

But Hill has been out with a knee injury the last few weeks, one of several Tigers battling injuries. It’s forced a freshman, Jayden Martin and a sophomore, Skyler Crudup, into the starting lineup. Both were on the sophomore team just two weeks ago.

Saturday in the Romeoville Shootout at Lewis University junior Jaiden Lee turned in a gutty, aggressive performance to lead No. 14 Joliet West past No. 22 Hillcrest 57-55.

Lee scored 21 points, 19 in the second half.

“Without Jamere, one of our best players, we just had to play hard and do what we could to get the win,” Lee said. “We defended and rebounded.”

Lee is already well-regarded by the recruiting evaluators, but this is the first time he’s had the weight of the team on his shoulders.

“His ability to score in bunches and his versatility at his size is so special,” Tigers coach Jeremy Kreiger said. “ I looked at him and I told him to bring it home. He made big shots, made big free throws he guarded with length. He was very special for us.”

Hillcrest (17-8) led by seven midway through the fourth quarter but the young Tigers (22-4) fought back to within four points with 1:42 left and then didn’t allow the Hawks a basket the rest of the way. Two free throws from junior Terrance Moncrief with 23 seconds left gave the Joliet West the lead for good.

Hillcrest junior Mar’Keise Irving missed a potential go-ahead three-pointer with seven seconds left and junior Julius Rollins had a game-tying layup blocked at the buzzer.

Moncrief wasn’t playing a ton of minutes until the injury bug hit the Tigers.

“We are super proud of Terrance,” Kreiger said. “He’s had an up and down season. But it was huge to step to the line on a college floor against a ranked team and make those free throws. And the defense he played down the stretch, he forced them to play sped up so they couldn’t stall it.”

Irving led Hillcrest with 23 points. Rollins scored eight and Jakobi Heady added five points and nine rebounds.

Junior Trent Howland had 10 points and seven rebounds for Joliet West. Crudup scored 7 and grabbed four rebounds and Moncrief finished with six points. The Tigers managed the win despite committing 26 turnovers.

“We can’t control four guys rolling ankles and one guy hurting his knee,” Kreiger said. “But this just adds to our experience for the playoffs. When young guys can step up back to back weekends against Bolingbrook and Hillcrest and still take care of business in conference that gets us ready for March because we want that sectional championship at Lockport.”

Kreiger said it could be two weeks before Hill returns from his knee injury, which means he would be ready for the playoffs. But Joliet West isn’t falling apart without him.

“This shows us we don’t need one person to do anything,” Moncrief said. “We can come together as a team to get the win.”