PLAINFIELD – Plainfield High School celebrated its senior winter athletes Saturday afternoon before the much-improved Cardinals’ basketball team capped off the day with another win.

Plainfield, 4-18 a season ago, is 11-6 after an 81-56 home non-conference win over Piscataway. The Chiefs (9-10) and Cardinals were tied 30-30 at halftime, but Plainfield took control by outscoring Piscataway 20-8 in the third quarter.

More: Boys basketball rankings: Skyland Conference and area Union County Conference Top 10

More: Boys basketball Skyland Conference, western Union County Conference notebook

“Our guys really got after it on the defensive side and turned it into points on the other end, a few steals turned into layups, and we were attacking the basket a lot more on the offensive side, and we got to the free throw line more than we did in the first half,” said Plainfield coach Mike Gordon.

Plainfield was 22-of-31 from the line,14 coming in the second half.

Junior Kamai Lowery led the Cardinals with 26 points – 20 in the second half, 12 in the third quarter. Freshman guard Micah Gordon – the coach’s son – scored 15 points with five steals.

“Kamai had a great game, when he gets it going … he was really sharp, really sharp,” Gordon said. “He knocks down shots. He’s aggressive attacking the rim. He got to the free-throw line a few times. He’s a key piece to our offense, a key piece to our team, period. When he gets it going, he’s a tough player to stop.”

Plainfield opened the week losing to defending Non-Public B state champion Union Catholic Tuesday but rebounded with a significant 58-48 win over Elizabeth Thursday. The win over Elizabeth was Gordon’s first over the Minutemen in his six seasons as Cardinals’ coach.

The Cardinals are 4-3 in the Union County Conference Watchung Division. Last season they finished 0-10.

“It’s any given day,” Gordon said. “Any given day, you have to be locked in day in and out, you have a day where you aren’t, you’re going to lose.”

As a player, Gordon guided Plainfield to a sectional title in 2004 and went on to star in the backcourt at Binghamton University. There, noted for his dogged on-ball defense, he twice was named second-team All-America East.

Plainfield is currently unofficially third in the North 2, Group 4 power point race behind only Ridge and Watchung Hills. The Union County Tournament will seed Tuesday, and it will be uncharted recent territory for the Cardinals, who should command a good seed.

The win over Elizabeth could have made Plainfield ripe to be picked off Saturday, plus Gordon started five seniors in honor of the day. Antonio Ruiz was the only regular starter to play the first eight minutes.

Plainfield led 19-14 after the first quarter, and the Chiefs picked it up in the second quarter. They led by as many as four as Logan Smith hit for seven points before the break. He finished with 17.

“You know this is somewhat of a rivalry, and Piscataway came in very hyped about the game. We were hyped about it, too,” said Gordon. “They came out and competed early, and our guys came out a little too slow and were just able to pick it up.”

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ boys basketball: Plainfield closes strong to top Piscataway