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Sports
First half fireworks : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisFirst half fireworks
| Oswego boys basketball team builds 24-point lead at intermission, advances to sectional final
| by Kristin Sharp
| 3/11/2010
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Oswego boys' head coach Kevin Schnable wants his team to play a more complete game, but winning by more than 20 points in a sectional game is no small feat either.
The Panthers (23-6) used back-to-back three pointers from sophomore guard Ryan West to start an 11-0 run to swell Oswego's already double-digit lead into a 32-13 game just three minutes into the second quarter. Marian Central (20-10) never recovered, falling 67-46 to Oswego in Tuesday's Class 3A Hampshire Sectional semifinal.
With the win, Oswego advances to Friday's sectional final at 7:30 p.m. against the winner of the Freeport/DeKalb game, which took place Wednesday night, but results were unavailable at press time.
"We don't have to do anything crazy at this time of year. Let's just do what we do on a daily basis," Schnable said. "It should be polished at this time of year. But our experience is helping us and our leaders are bringing our young guys along. You've got to have faith and trust in our kids and we do."
Marian Central, which advanced to the sectional semifinal after winning its first regional title since 1977, wanted to play an up-tempo game with Oswego, but the Hurricanes got more than they bargained for with Oswego.
After a 2-2 start to the game, the Panthers were off and running.
West (19 points) hit his first long-range shot with 5:39 on the clock to give the Panthers a spark and after a free throw by senior forward Joe Kwiatkowski (nine points, six assists), Oswego senior forward Andrew Ziemnik (17 points, 12 rebounds) dished the ball to senior center Collin Seibert (11 rebounds) for a 12-6 Panther lead.
Marian Central took a timeout with 1:57 to play in the first quarter after senior guard Kenny Jones' putback gave Oswego a 14-7 lead, but the Hurricanes could never get into an offensive rhythm.
Oswego converted twice after Marian Central's errant shots, first on a layup by Kwiatkowski before he received a nice assist from freshman guard Miles Simelton inside for an 18-9 lead.
"As a basketball team, I think we were a bit shell-shocked with the intensity level of Oswego in a game like this," Marian Central head coach Curtis Price said. "We saw them on tape, but until you play in it and you see it, you don't know exactly how to respond to it. ... I think we were just shocked by the intensity level it takes to move on once you get to the sectional. It's been a long time since we've won a regional and we didn't know what to expect."
Jones hit a trey to end the first quarter with a 21-11 lead, and after a basket from Marian Central junior guard Jake Everly (13 points) to start the second quarter, the Hurricanes' offense would be silent through the next three minutes.
After West's consecutive treys, Ziemnik was good for two at the foul line and Jones (11 points) got in on the action before Marian Central was whistled for an offensive charge with 5:30 on the clock. Senior guard Brandon Collier made one at the line, and Oswego turned an eight-point lead into a 19-point advantage.
Ziemnik found himself open beyond the arc for a three with 4:36 to play in the first half, and both Kwiatkowski and Collier came up with steals to continue to stall Marian Central's offense.
Ziemnik scored the final seven points of the first half including a well-timed three pointer with 10 ticks remaining to give Oswego a 46-22 halftime lead.
"Pretty much everything was clicking. We were making our shots, our defense was up and heavy and they didn't really know how to handle it," Ziemnik said. "We played with poise and handled everything well. We have some young guys still and in their first sectional (starting), Ryan West and Miles, I thought they handled it well."
But the third quarter was a different story from the first half. Oswego made just two field goals, scoring only six points over the eight-minute span after three turnovers and several missed opportunities on offense. Still, the Panthers led 52-32 going into the fourth quarter.
"To put 46 points on the board, we were pleased with the first half, but it takes a full 32 minutes," Schnable said. "Coaches are crazy and I fall into that category. It's all about surviving and advancing and I'm not happy about our third quarter, but there's a reason. It's not just about winning (Tuesday's) game. It's about getting better for the next one ... It's hard to maintain what we did in the second half, but you still want to execute and get better and learn and grow for the next one. We'll take it. We're not going to dwell on (Tuesday). We're just going to prepare for who we play on Friday."
West opened the final period with his fourth three-pointer of the game, Kwiatkowski followed with a putback on Oswego's next possession and West added one more field goal to lift the Panthers to a 59-34 lead.
Seibert converted two at the free-throw line and Kwiatkowski came up with another basket to build Oswego's lead to 63-34 before the Schnable began making substitutions.
Marian Central was able to string together nine points late in the fourth quarter and cut Oswego's lead to 20 (63-43) after senior guard Danny Noonan hit a three. But the game was decided much earlier.
"I thought defensively we did a nice job and mixed it up quite a bit. We shut down their best player [Noonan], who I believe is the McHenry County leading scorer. We did a good job on him. We dominated the rebounds. We just have to play a cleaner game offensively in the second half," Schnable said.
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