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Sports
Young players gain valuable lessons : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisYoung players gain valuable lessons
| Injuries plague Oswego girls' basketball team, but Harmon ends career at Redbird Arena
| by Kristin Sharp
| 3/8/2012
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For Oswego's third all-time leading scorer, it was only fitting that senior Paige Harmon end her high school playing career where it all began: at Redbird Arena.
The four-year varsity player closed out her freshman season in the Class 3A girls' basketball state finals, but played just nine games as a senior after a preseason broken foot shortened her final season on the court.
"I told Paige that either way, in a crazy year she got to wear her uniform for the last time at Redbird Arena, so it was a cool thing for her to get down there," Oswego head coach Chad Pohlmann said.
Harmon advanced out of the Class 4A Oswego Regional, but needed a triple tiebreaker in the Neuqua Valley Sectional Three-Point Showdown to reach Redbird Arena.
"In the sectional final during the second shootoff, Paige needed to make seven to tie or eight to win out of 10. She made three on her first rack and four on the last rack. She has a ball to go ahead and she missed, so she tied," Pohlmann said. "There's a third shootoff and Paige advanced downstate. I told her that I've been doing this my whole professional career the last 15 years and I've never seen anyone have to shoot three times to make it downstate."
Harmon was a part of Group 1 during the Three-Point Showdown at Redbird Arena and made 10 three-point baskets to leave her in a six-way tie after the preliminary round with one spot remaining into the finals.
Harmon made five baskets during the shootout, and Krystal James won the tiebreaker with seven. James went on to win the finals, and advance to the Queen of the Hill competition with the Class 1A, 2A and 3A finalists where she finished second.
Harmon was not the only player absent from Pohlmann's lineup. Sophomore Amina Green (torn MCL) returned midway through the season while junior Kelsey Nelson (stress fracture) started the season on the floor, but suffered an injury during the year.
Throughout the season, however, Oswego managed to hover around the .500 mark before making a late run through the end of the season. The Lady Panthers opened the year with a 2-4 start after participating in a competitive Geneva Invite that included Class 3A state champion Montini.
"Everybody had to step in and we felt like starting the season, with the success our current sophomores had as freshmen and with our incoming freshmen class and Paige back along with Amina and Kelsey returning, we felt like we might have a chance to have a really decent team," Pohlmann said. "Record-wise, our season didn't turn out the way we wanted, but the whole season the girls practiced hard and we stayed in a lot of games.
"Our schedule at the beginning of the year was really difficult with Morgan Park, Montini and Geneva," Pohlmann continued.
Oswego moved into Southwest Prairie Conference play and started with a 2-2 record before placing second at its own Holiday Classic, falling to Neuqua Valley in the championship game.
"We made a bit of a run in our holiday tournament and we played well early on in our conference games," Pohlmann said. "We battled and the girls got a lot of experience, but things kept happening. Kelsey got hurt and there were times in the season that we hit a little bit of a wall."
Starting with the loss to Neuqua Valley in the tournament title game, Oswego went on a five-game skid that ended with a one-point win over Plainfield North in mid-January.
Oswego regrouped from that point, and with the return of Harmon, the Panthers picked up a 55-48 road win at Oswego East to hand the Wolves their first SPC loss of the season.
"We had some really decent games. We beat Oswego East on their home floor and basically took the conference championship away from them solely. To beat them on their home floor, it showed the girls and everybody else that that's the team we could have had if everybody had been healthy," Pohlmann said. "It gave a lot of time and experience to the rest of the girls and we have the whole team back, except for Paige. You can't replace a player like Paige, but those girls got a lot of experience."
Harmon will leave Oswego as the program's third all-time leading scorer after amassing more than 1,300 points, and is the all-time leading rebounder with 750 career boards. She also passed the 100 mark for steals, blocks and assists before she makes her way to Western Illinois University where she will play for the Leathernecks during the 2012-13 season. Harmon also earned All-SPC honors this year despite her limited playing time.
"She's one heckuva talent," Pohlmann said. "She's a very talented player and having gone through what she did this past summer and on into the season was really difficult, but she kept a positive attitude. She worked hard to get herself back to play and it was a real pleasure to have her in our program."
Oswego had four freshmen play a significant role on the court this season. Amri Wilder was the Panthers' leading scorer with 242 points (9.0 points per game) and a team-best 58 assists and 47 steals, while Erin Sinnott averaged 6.3 ppg and Jordan Campbell had 7.2 ppg and was the team's second-leading rebounder with 6.3 boards per game.
"Amri had a really nice season. She started every ball game this year for us as a freshman and I named her a captain. She had some really great moments this season," Pohlmann said. "Erin and Jordan, both players showed some flashes of really being some great players at the high school level. They also had times where they gained experience. Those three girls definitely have a chance to play on varsity for four years and have their own stories to write. We're excited they're going to be back because all three work really hard."
Junior Caeleigh Morton quickly recovered from a preseason injury to play in 24 games this year and become Oswego's leading rebounder with 160 boards (6.7 per game) along with 19 blocked shots.
"She finally got healthy and once the season hit she started a ton of games for us and gave us an inside presence," Pohlmann said. "She's going to continue to get better and we're excited to have her back."
Pohlmann also looks forward to the return of Nelson and Green for the 2012-13 season after both battled injuries this year.
"Kelsey and Amina were never really themselves throughout the whole season. They could never physically get back to 100 percent," Pohlmann said. "They both have some serious upside and I'm excited to have them back.
"People like Amy Annala and Krissy Klingbeil and Siarra O'Neil did a really nice job," Pohlmann continued.
"Becca Anderson helped out as the season went on. We feel like there's a core of returning players, and we have some players on our sophomore team that can help us out."
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