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Sports
Unsung hero : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisUnsung hero
| Battle scores career-best 28 points as Oswego East defeats Geneva in fifth-place game
| by Laura M. Medina
| 12/1/2011
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After pulling out a close win in its previous outing, the last thing the Oswego East boys' basketball team wanted to do Friday afternoon was battle down to the wire.
Thanks to an explosive offensive stretch between the second and third quarters - a rally led by an unsung player - the team did not have to.
Senior Kenny Battle Jr. had the hot hand for the Wolves, scoring a career-best 28 points on the day en route to a 66-54 win over Geneva to secure a fifth-place finish in the eight-team Hoops for Healing Tournament at Oswego High School.
Earlier Friday, Marmion Academy defeated DeKalb 65-52 in the seventh-place game, while later in the day in the third-place game, crosstown rival Oswego fell 63-55 to Naperville North, which co-hosted the tournament. Sixth-ranked De La Salle went on to top Naperville Central 66-61 for the championship in a marquee evening matchup.
Oswego East (3-1) opened the tournament - and the accompanying 2011-12 season - with an overwhelming 84-57 win over DeKalb on Nov. 21, but followed it up with a 70-47 loss to De La Salle the next night.
In an effort to open their schedule on a positive note, the Wolves needed some late-game heroics from Battle, whose last-second drive to the basket on Nov. 23 gave them a 73-71 win over Naperville North.
Things were almost as close on Friday, as Oswego East led 26-22 with about three minutes to play in the second, but the team knew that wouldn't be enough to keep Geneva (1-3) at bay.
That's when Battle stepped up, scoring nine points during the Wolves' 11-4 swing to close out the quarter.
"I was feeling comfortable," Battle said. "Usually, I'm iffy on shooting, but they were giving me too much room, so I just started shooting, and they just started falling."
And fall they did, as the 6-foot-3 guard continued creating problems for the Vikings. Battle opened the second half with a driving layup and added three three-pointers, including one with two seconds left, to give his team a 57-38 third-quarter edge for their biggest lead of the game.
"(Battle) would have obviously gotten all-tournament if it hadn't been voted on before our game," Oswego East head coach Jason Buckley said. "He's not in it for that by any means, but it would have been nice to recognize him.
"Kenny played really well; I think he's unsung. Obviously, he puts the points up on the board, but what he does a really nice job of is rebounding, and he had seven boards and three steals for us. He also played almost the entire game and only had two turnovers, which - coming off of six (Wednesday) night - I thought it was a real improvement."
As well as things had been going for the Wolves to that point, they struggled a bit in the fourth quarter, as they were outscored 16-9 overall. They ran into a little bit of trouble in the early going, falling victim to four whistles on their first five possessions and giving the Vikings a chance to cut the deficit to 59-47.
Oswego East, however, was able to keep pace with Geneva, getting its points at the free-throw line, where it converted seven of 10 attempts.
Meanwhile, it was All-Tournament guard Brendan Leahy leading the way for the Vikings, with four of his team-best 15 points coming in that stretch.
Battle cooled down in the fourth, contributing two of four from the stripe, and the Wolves ended up with their third win of the season, a 66-54 effort.
"It was a big game for me (last Wednesday), but I knew I had to come into (Friday's) game playing even harder," Battle said.
That hard play resulted in a career night for Battle, who stepped up again in place of starting senior point guard C.J. Vaughan, who was named to the All-Tournament team, but was sidelined with head and ankle injuries suffered during the win against the Huskies.
At press time, his return to the court was uncertain, but if last Friday was any indication, the Wolves appear able take care of things even without one of their leaders.
"We didn't have a choice (to play without Vaughan)," Buckley said. "We didn't want to change things drastically for a few reasons. One, you don't want to put in panic in the guys' minds, but secondly, I didn't think we really needed to."
Though limited without Vaughan, the Wolves also received offensive contributions from senior forward Kalmon Stokes (13 points - all in the first half) and senior guard Troy Ross (eight rebounds, three assists), while senior guards EJ Watkins and Josh Hicks and junior forward Scooter Smith combined for 10 points to help the Wolves start their season off 3-1.
Yet for everything that went right, Buckley still noted that his team was a work in progress, particularly in terms of taking care of the ball.
"We said at the beginning that 2-2 would be an average week, but 3-1 is very good week, and we got the job done," Buckley said. "It wasn't pretty. I think we turned it over way too many times down the stretch. We only had four turnovers at the half, and we ended up with 16, and that can't happen. You've gotta be better than that.
"The good news is I think we will be better than that down the stretch. We found out about a lot of guys this week - most of it positive - and we like the direction we're headed. We're by no means a finished product yet, and that's a good thing."
After an eight-day layoff, Oswego East resumes its slate on Friday in a home matchup against Southwest Prairie Conference foe Plainfield North, following it up with a game against Knox - an Australian team - on Dec. 6 in preparation for the perennially-competitive crosstown contest at Oswego on Dec. 9.
"We'd like to be a little bit further along than we are, but that's the nature of the beast when you only have two weeks of practice in and you get thrown right into the fire with four straight games," Buckley said. "We've still got a long ways to go, but we'll get there."
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