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Sports
Wolves go the distance : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisWolves go the distance
| Second-half shooting lifts Oswego East boys' basketball team to regional quarterfinal win
| by Kristin Sharp
| 2/28/2013
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After a cold first half behind the three-point arc, it was the Oswego East boys basketball team's ability to connect on its long-range field goals that allowed the Wolves to pull away in the Class 4A Oswego East Regional quarterfinal.
On Monday, No. 14 Oswego East played host to No. 19 Hinsdale South and although the Hornets tied the game at 23 points to start the third quarter, the Wolves went 6-for-9 at the three-point arc and went on to win 64-52.
"The first half we were playing with good energy, good intensity - almost too much. We hurried some shots and we sped ourselves up and we didn't necessarily need to," Oswego East head coach Ron Murphy said. "I thought the difference in the second half was we channeled that energy a little bit better on the offensive end. We got some drive-and-kick opportunities. We were able to get the ball in the lane. Whenever you can do that, your shot percentage is going to go up, and that happened."
Oswego East advanced to the Oswego East Regional semifinal game against No. 3 Neuqua Valley, but Tuesday's game was postponed to Wednesday due to the snow. Results of that game were unavailable, with the winner moving into Friday's regional championship game at 7:30 p.m.
Oswego East (14-13) fell behind 4-0 to start the game before senior CJ Vaughan hit a three-pointer, but the guard would struggle to score just one more field goal in the first half for the Wolves. As a team, Oswego East went 1-for-11 behind the arc in the first half.
Despite a consistent scoring effort by Hinsdale South, Oswego East was able to maintain a slight lead on the scoreboard through the first quarter. Senior Kendall Dorsey scored four points midway through the quarter for a 9-8 lead and his free throws lifted the team to a 12-8.
The Hornets scored four late points to cut Oswego East's lead to 14-12 entering the second quarter, and Hinsdale South junior Larry Motuzis hit a three-pointer to give the Hornets a 15-14 lead.
Senior Scooter Smith (15 points) had a field goal and a strong layup following a steal by junior teammate Mike McAllister, who had four steals in the game and provided much of the defensive pressure on the floor.
Smith came through with a steal and a layup on the opposite end for a 21-17 lead, but Hinsdale South senior Jerry Stoltz (14 points) hit a three-pointer to cut the Wolves' lead back to one.
After a series of Hornet turnovers, which included nine in the first half, and missed shots by the Wolves, Oswego East took a 23-22 lead at halftime.
Hinsdale South took a 26-25 lead with 6:23 to play in the third quarter, but Dorsey scored before McAllister assisted Smith's basket for a 29-26 Oswego East lead. With 4:22 to play, Vaughan (20 points) hit a three and McAllister followed with a steal and layup for a 34-26 lead that prompted a Hornet timeout.
"We probably used more energy on the defensive end than the offensive end because I noticed a lot of guys were hustling to spots to close out on the shooters," Smith said. "They were knocking shots down in the first half that they weren't able to in the second half. It showed the way we closed out the second half."
A basket by Vaughan stretched the lead to six, but with 1:20 to play, junior Manny Contreras came off the bench and hit a three-pointer, which was followed almost immediately by Dorsey's long-distance field goal for a 42-34 lead.
"I don't think it was as much of anything we did wrong in the second half as much as it was more that they played well," Hinsdale South head coach Tanner Mitchell said. "They started knocking down some threes ... when you shoot 66 percent fro the three-point line, you're going to pull away from most teams. I thought the end of the third quarter, beginning of the fourth when they started to pull away, the difference was they made their open shots and we missed our open shots."
Following a basket from junior Jeremy Mitchell, Oswego East led 44-36 at the end of the third quarter, and Oswego East scored the first seven points of the fourth thanks to five points from Vaughan and a three-pointer from Contreras.
"We had a couple teammates hit a couple threes, and that was big," Smith said. "That definitely sparked us and we knew we had the game in our hands."
Oswego East took a timeout with 3:40 to play and Vaughan nailed his final three-pointer after the break, while Dorsey put the exclamation point on the win with a dunk.
"It was great that we got it going later on. We definitely thought it was a team that we could speed up and play to our tempo," Smith said. "We had to run them, get them tired and run our stuff and it showed at the end of the game."
Last Friday, Oswego East hosted Minooka and earned a 64-52 win over the Indians to finish 10-5 in SPC play - good enough for second place. The Wolves went 5-2 in the second half of league play since Jan. 25 and have lost only four games in 2013.
"It's good. It got us to .500 and I think that was an important step for us psychologically," Murphy said. "I'm proud of our kids given where we came from with the 0-7 start to fight back and get to 13-13. We played with a lot of energy on Thursday night. Minooka is a good basketball team."
Vaughan scored 15 points against Minooka while Dorsey scored 13 and Smith added 11 points. Senior Tyler Ross had six rebounds and Vaughan had three steals in the victory.
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