Boys Basketball: Tyreek Coleman, Waubonsie Valley get back up, rally past Oswego in fourth quarter

AURORA – Tyreek Coleman crashed to the baseline as he was fouled on a driving layup and rubbed his head as he was helped up.

Like Coleman, Waubonsie Valley has taken some hits.

The Warriors lost their last three regular-season games by a combined 82 points. On Wednesday night, Waubonsie Valley watched as a seven-point halftime lead slipped away to Oswego. But Coleman and the Warriors got back up.

Coleman, a sophomore point guard, scored the go-ahead basket on a driving layup a minute into the fourth quarter. Eighth-seeded Waubonsie never looked back, recovering to hold 10th-seeded Oswego scoreless for nearly four minutes to start the fourth quarter in an eventual 54-40 win in a Class 4A Waubonsie Valley Regional semifinal.

Coleman had 16 points and eight rebounds, Tre Blissett 14 points and Shoi Rathi 10 points for Waubonsie (15-15), which advanced to face Bolingbrook in Friday’s regional final. The second-seeded Raiders beat Lincoln-Way Central in overtime in Wednesday’s first game.

“Down two, we knew what was on the line,” Coleman said. “Our seniors, they came out hot. We handled the ball, limited our turnovers, played some good defense, and we got the win.”

Coleman had hit a tying 3-pointer with 18 seconds left in the third quarter, but Oswego’s Armani Hunter made a baseline jumper on an inbounds play as time expired in the third quarter to give the Panthers a 34-32 lead.

But Coleman, Waubonsie’s starting point guard since Day 1 as a sophomore, remained cool under the hot postseason pressure.

After Blissett, who scored 10 of his 14 in the fourth quarter, rolled in a tying basket, Coleman gave Waubonsie a 36-34 lead with his driving score. Then Coleman stole the ball and fed Blissett in transition for a three-point play.

Coleman later assisted Eric Chtilianov’s dunk on a lob to cap off a 16-1 run to start the fourth for a 48-35 lead and was 6 of 7 at the free-throw line.

Nothing new to Waubonsie coach Andrew Schweitzer, who has entrusted Coleman with running the show and playing the point of his 1-2-2 zone.

“Tyreek is ... man,” Schweitzer said. “Bringing up a sophomore, it’s something we kind of debated, but then we saw in open gyms, and it was like, you can’t ignore it. You expect sophomore mistakes. This kid has become one of our best leaders; he is a basketball junkie. Sky is the limit for that kid.”

Schweitzer wasn’t surprised to see his streaky team respond to its late-season struggles, and Oswego’s surge. Waubonsie led 20-13 at the halftime on the strength of Rathi’s nine first-half points while holding Oswego to 5-of-19 shooting.

“We’ve been through as rollercoaster a season as you can get. We’ve seen it all,” Schweitzer said. “I talked to the kids about how resilient they have been all year. [Hunter] hit that big shot at the end of the third, and it was awesome to see our kids lock back down and turn it up defensively.”

Josh Nelson scored 12 points, and Dasean Patton had nine points, five rebounds and three blocks for Oswego (15-16).

Back-to-back baskets by Patton started an 11-2 Oswego run out of halftime, and the Panthers went ahead 24-22 on Jayden Riley’s two free throws with 5:02 left in the third quarter.

Nelson’s third of four 3s gave Oswego a 32-29 lead with 1:32 left in the third quarter.

“There was just so much energy on the court, everybody was making shots,” Nelson said. “We were all just bouncing off of each other. It just shows how much momentum and energy and togetherness can do to a team.”

After a 21-point third quarter, though, Oswego’s offense went south in the fourth.

The Panthers committed four turnovers and missed three shots before Hunter split two free throws with 4:18 left to break the scoreless drought. Oswego went without a fourth-quarter field goal until Nelson’s 3 with 1:28 left.

“It was a frustrating game,” Oswego coach Chad Pohlmann said. “Obviously we felt we had a good shot winning coming over here today. We were really confident, and it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Still, it was a season of progress for the Panthers.

Oswego went 9-3 over its last 12 games, including Wednesday. A team that started a freshman, Riley, and a sophomore, Patton, the latter who came on in a big way down the stretch recovered well from a 2-8 start to the season which included a December loss to Waubonsie without leading scorer Max Niesman.

“Nobody would have ever thought they would have won 15 games,” Pohlmann said. “No matter what happens, they won. It was honestly one of the most fun seasons I’ve had coaching, because they just kept working, and they figured out how to compete and win.”