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Sports
Super seniors : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisSuper seniors
| Class of 2013 leads Oswego to win for last time before gym demo
| by Alex Gasick
| 2/21/2013
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The Oswego boys' basketball team celebrated Senior Night last Friday against Southwest Prairie Conference foe, Plainfield North. Oswego never trailed in the game and extended their win streak to 15 games with a 65-46 victory.
"I'm excited about how our guys played," Oswego head coach Kevin Schnable said. "We played hard, we played right, we played together and that's exciting at this time of year."
With the win, Oswego improved its record to 25-2 (13-0 SPC), while Plainfield North fell to 12-13 (9-4 SPC).
The eight seniors honored before the game included Jamaal Richardson, Miles Simelton, Elliott McGaughy, Danny Mangers, Darion Reddick, Devon Zych, Jack Kwiatkowski, Trevor Hamman and Josh Oros.
"The class of 2013 is a special group of kids," Schnable said. "It's really impossible to sum up in one interview what they've meant to our program, but they're just a great group of kids and they happen to be able to play some basketball too."
Reddick got things started offensively for the Panthers when he hit a three-pointer to put the Panthers up 3-0 with 6:57 left in the first quarter. From there, the Panthers never looked back as they flustered the Tigers with their defensive pressure and led 15-7 after the first quarter.
"We definitely played really good defense and that's what helped us set the tone when some of our shots weren't falling early in the game," Simelton said.
Early in the second quarter, Oswego looked like it were going to blow Plainfield North out of the gym after back-to-back baskets by McGaughy and a trifecta from Simelton put the Panthers up 22-9. However, despite Oswego controlling the tempo of the game, the Tigers were able to hang tough and only trailed 29-20 at halftime.
The Tigers continued to hang tough in the second half and trailed 44-34 with 6:15 left in the fourth quarter.
At that point, the Panthers made three-pointers on three consecutive possessions to all but put the finishing touches on the Tigers. Reddick knocked one down on a feed from Oros. Sophomore Zach West then drained a pair of long ones, the second off an assist from McGaughy.
In a span of 53 seconds, the Panthers' lead grew to 53-36. The Panthers went up by as much as 22 before winning by 19.
Simelton, McGaughy and Reddick - who have all been varsity players for at least three years - combined for 42 points. Reddick led the way with 15 points, while Simelton added 14 of his own. McGaughy contributed 13 points.
West also ended up in double figures with 11 points, while Kwiatkowski added seven.
"Having that balance on offense is really important for us," Simelton said. "If everyone can continue to contribute offensively I think we'll be hard to stop in the postseason."
Schnable agreed the offensive balance was important, but what stood out in his mind was their diversity on defense.
"We can play both brands of ball, fast and physical, and we did that tonight," Schnable said. "Our guards were able to force pressure and our big guys crashed the boards and patrolled the paint."
Along with being Senior Night, the win proved to be special as it was the last game played in the current gym. A new gym will be built in the offseason.
"They're always going to be remembered as the team that won the last game in the old gym," Schnable said. "It was nice to see them put on a show for our alumni who were here tonight."
Oswego, which has already won the SPC, will cap off its regular season today, Thursday, at Romeoville. A win would seal its first ever undefeated season in SPC play.
"Once we clinched the league we made it our goal to run the table," Schnable said. "We have one more to go and we'll definitely be ready."
Oswego opens the Class 4A postseason on Tuesday in the Batavia Regional. On Monday, No. 16 Plainfield East and No. 17 Batavia will play in the regional play-in game, with the winner advancing to play Oswego in the regional semifinal at 6 p.m. No. 8 Bolingbrook will play No. 9 Lemont in the second game on Tuesday, with the semifinal winners playing for the regional title on March 1.
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