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Sports
Wolves endure ups, downs this season : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisWolves endure ups, downs this season
| Tough January stretch leaves Oswego East girls team with 12 wins
| by Kristin Sharp
| 3/7/2013
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The Oswego East girls' basketball team knew defending its Southwest Prairie Conference title would be a tall task this season, but the Wolves did not anticipate the rough stretch of January they endured.
Injuries and illness plagued the squad after the new year and Oswego East won just four games before the season drew to a close with a 12-15 overall record.
"Overall, they felt pretty good. We had a lot of ups and downs in January with people being injured and other things going on, and there was a little bit of a struggle. That sometimes happens during the season," Oswego East head coach Abe Carretto said. "Some of them just had a little bit of a slump too. That can happen. You just have to keep fighting through it. They just kept trying to play hard and play through things and do the best they could. Unfortunately, we weren't producing some wins, but the girls kept playing hard. They didn't give up on each other."
Oswego East dug out of a 4-6 start to post an 8-7 record after appearing in its Holiday Classic championship game for the first time. The Wolves lost to Metea Valley, 59-53 to finish second, but the tournament was certainly a highlight of the season.
"We started a little under .500 and had a nice win streak there, playing good defense and scoring," Carretto said. "It was nice for us to finally be in our own championship game of our tournament. I was hoping we could carry that over into January and we did play some good teams in there so we saw some tough games."
Oswego East improved to 6-4 in Southwest Prairie Conference play with a win over Minooka in late January, but the Wolves endured a five-game skid before ending with a win over Plainfield South. Oswego East went 7-7 in the league to place fourth behind champion Romeoville (14-0).
Yorkville ended Oswego East's season on Feb. 13 with a 54-43 loss in the Class 4A playoffs.
"Some kids weren't feeling well over a two or three week stretch and we weren't able to carry over that momentum," Carretto said. "It was hard to get back on track."
Oswego East had contributions from several seniors, including LeRoyia Campbell and Brittany McWaine, who were part of the Wolves' regular starting rotation, as well as Toni Robinson and LaNisha Cruickshank.
"They stepped up, Brittany especially. Early on she was averaging almost a double-double," Carretto said. "Toni and LaNisha did a good job of stepping in and playing good defense and being a spark to get the team going when they came off the bench.
"Royia, when she's playing well, our team played well. We needed her to get going and score some points and that helped everyone else out."
McWaine was named to the All-Conference team with junior teammate Venita Parsons, who was also named a captain in her third varsity season this winter. Parsons, along with junior starter Julianna Wadsworth, will be key veterans in the lineup next year for Carretto.
Parsons was the team's leading scorer this year with 256 points (9.8 points per game) in addition to a team-best 52 assists and 32 steals.
McWaine led the team with 204 rebounds and scored 188 points (7.2 ppg) this season.
"Venita is our captain and will be again next year," Carretto said. "Julianna should step up with Venita. The sophomore team played well this year and finished at the top of conference. There's some good, young talent coming up to play with two good guards."
Oswego East will now enter the off-season working toward climbing back up to the top of a talented SPC field of teams. The Wolves will return to the Notre Dame camp as well as a host of area shootouts and summer leagues during its 25 contact days.
"We'll have a few sophomores, juniors and a handful of seniors and we'll have to see how it all comes together," Carretto said.
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