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Sports
Wilder provides a spark : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisWilder provides a spark
| Oswego sophomore scores 22 in easy win over Wildcats
| by Kristin Sharp
| 1/17/2013
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Having lost four of its last five games, the Oswego girls' basketball team needed to find a spark in Tuesday's home game against Plainfield Central.
The Lady Panthers found one in sophomore Amri Wilder.
The 5-foot-7 guard hit a three-pointer with nine seconds remaining in the first quarter to begin her scoring run, and 24 minutes later she finished with a game-high 22 points to lead Oswego to a 61-36 rout over Plainfield Central.
With the win, Oswego improves to 9-8 overall and 4-4 in Southwest Prairie Conference play while Plainfield Central falls to 3-15 and 0-8.
"We've had moments where we've been up and down all season long, but we've been on Amri to take the ball to the basket," Oswego head coach Chad Pohlmann said. "We told Amri she has to start taking the ball to the basket. The light bulb went on and she started scoring. She had the best two weeks of practice that I've seen her have since she's been with us. ... Give Central some credit; they scrapped and played hard. I thought Amri continued to battle."
A sluggish first quarter set the tone for the night as Plainfield Central was whistled for seven turnovers in the first four minutes of play, but Oswego struggled offensively and trailed 7-6 with 1:52 left in the opening quarter.
Junior Kelsey Nelson (11 points) was fouled on a successful layup 12 seconds later and completed the three-point play to give Oswego an 11-7 lead - a lead they would never relinquish.
Sophomore Erin Sinnott sank both of her free-throw attempts before Wilder's triple gave Oswego a 16-7 lead entering the second quarter.
"Erin continues to play super hard for us," Pohlmann said. "She battles and rebounds. She's not shooting the ball as best she can right now, but she was still able to continue to help us move the ball."
Wilder scored the first five points of the second period before senior Becca Anderson (10 points) hit a field goal for a 23-7 Panther lead.
"We calmed down and relaxed, and when we started faking a pass and making a pass, it worked," Wilder said.
Junior guard Krissy Klingbeil, who played significant minutes off the bench, scored with 1:47 to play in the first half, giving Oswego a 30-13 lead, and free throws helped the Panthers extend that lead to 33-14 at intermission.
Wilder scored eight points in the third quarter and Sinnott chipped in with a pairof baskets to put the game well out of reach, and Nelson's layup with 10 seconds left created a 48-20 score heading into the fourth.
Both teams utilized its bench throughout the fourth quarter, but Anderson added six more points while junior Ashley Fischer hit a three-pointer late in the game.
Oswego played without sophomore starter Siarra O'Neill, who is out after experiencing concussion symptoms during Oswego's last meeting with Plainfield Central on Jan. 8. She is expected to return to play on Friday, but in the meantime, Oswego needed to find another scoring threat on the court. After defeating the Wildcats by just seven points one week ago, Wilder was pleased with her team's effort in Tuesday's 25-point margin.
"She's our shooter, so it's harder to find the shooter. We just have to keep working," Wilder said of O'Neill's absence. "She's coming back soon, so it'll get better."
Oswego will host Plainfield North on Friday at 6:30 p.m. before visiting SPC leader Romeoville next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
After taking a lengthy schedule break over the two-week holiday stretch and returning to finals week at Oswego, Pohlmann is looking forward to a regular game routine through the rest of January.
"The routine will definitely help. The problem was that this past week we had finals so we were out of our regular school routine," Pohlmann said. "We didn't play a very good first half on Friday against Minooka. I'm hoping that really helps us get on a roll. I was telling them about a team when I was at Lincoln-Way that had only won two games, but won 12 or 14 games in a row and finished 15-12. Those kind of things can happen. We're certainly capable of playing some good basketball. The girls just have to continue to come in a play hard, compete and battle. We're such a young team still and we have Becca as our only senior, so every game and every satiation is going to continue to be a learning experience for us."
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