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Sports
Avenging a loss : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisAvenging a loss
| Oswego East boys' basketball team defeats Plainfield East 69-64
| by Alex Gasick
| 1/31/2013
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The Oswego East boys' basketball team traveled to Plainfield East on Friday for a Southwest Prairie Conference matchup with hopes of gaining revenge after suffering a 57-44 loss to the Bengals on Nov. 29.
Led by scrappy defense and clutch free throw shooting down the stretch, the Wolves fulfilled their mission, beating the Bengals 69-64. The win marked the fifth straight for the Wolves, and the team added one more to that streak on Saturday with a 58-53 win over Batavia in the Ernie Kovisto Shootout at East Aurora.
Oswego East improved to 9-10 on the season after overcoming an 0-7 start. Its six-game win streak ended on Tuesday with a 74-67 loss to Plainfield North.
"The difference between where we were 10 games ago and where we are now is how we're defending," Oswego East head coach Ron Murphy said. "We know when we defend well; we'll be in the game. It doesn't matter if we're shooting the ball well or not, if we defend well we can keep ourselves in games."
Defense certainly came in handy for the Wolves early in the game as they had trouble making shots in the first quarter. Despite their shooting woes, the Wolves played stringent man-to-man defense and left the first quarter with a 12-8 lead. Senior CJ Vaughan and junior Manny Contreras combined for all of the Wolves' offense in the first quarter with six points apiece.
"We came out with a whole lot of energy on defense, which was great because the first time we played them (Plainfield East) we didn't play with any energy," Vaughan said. "This time around we just wanted to hit them with the first punch and I think we did a good job of that."
The second quarter remained an offensive struggle as both teams settled for jump shots that for the most part, they were unable to connect on. Vaughan was able to drive to the basket with ease however and finished the first half with 13 points as the Wolves took a 23-21 lead into the half time.
"In the first half I just wanted to move the ball around and get my teammates involved but my teammates did a good job of finding me for open looks and set some good screens for me," Vaughan said.
Plainfield East (8-11, 5-4) was led offensively in the first half and throughout the game by senior Roger Tating and sophomore Aaron Jordan. Tating finished the game with 18 points while Jordan led the Bengals with 20 points.
Oswego East came out in the second half with the same energy they showed in the first half, only now their shots began to fall. The Wolves put together a 15-7 run at the start of the second half, to take a 38-28 lead with 4:35 left in the third quarter.
The Wolves continued to extend their lead and led 49-36 with seven seconds left in the third quarter. Vaughan, who led the Wolves with 22 points and Contreras (11 points) both contributed to the 26 point quarter, but the offensive explosion was due in large part to balance they didn't have in the first half. Seniors Tyler Ross (13 points), Kendall Dorsey (six points) and Scooter Smith (five points) and sophomore Houston McCullum (seven points) all contributed points for the Wolves.
Jordan hit a three-pointer for Plainfield East at the buzzer to cut the Wolves' lead to 49-39 heading in to the fourth quarter.
Plainfield East started the fourth quarter with a three pointer from Tating and a basket from junior Myles Ward to cut Oswego East's lead to 49-44. Ross responded with two baskets in a row for the Wolves to extend their lead back to 53-44.
"Tyler Ross has been a great leader for us all year," Murphy said. "He doesn't always show up in the scorebook, but he's been huge for us."
Oswego East built its lead to 60-50 with 3:20 left in the game but Plainfield East refused to quit. The Bengals put together an 8-0 run behind scores from Ward, Tating and junior Joshua Smith to cut the Wolves' lead to 60-58 with 1:32 left.
It would have been easy for Oswego East to falter at that point as Plainfield East had all the momentum and a rowdy home crowd behind them. However, the Wolves showed poise as they shut out the Bengals and made nine out of 12 free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
"We had not shot well from the line up to the point, but it was good to see our kids step up when the game was on the line," Murphy said.
Notes: A 13-point effort in the second quarter helped Oswego East to a 22-20 halftime lead over Batavia, and the Wolves held on for the five-point win. Dorsey had a game-high 19 points while Vaughan knocked in 16 points - including a 10-for-11 effort at the foul line in addition to seven rebounds and four steals.
On Tuesday, Oswego East dropped a 74-67 battle to move to 5-4 in Southwest Prairie Conference play. Vaughan had 24 points and Dorsey scored 21 while Smith knocked in nine, but as a team, the Wolves shot 37 percent (23 of 61) from field goal range.
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