Boys Basketball: Oswego East sticks to winning ways, shuts down Waubonsie Valley

AURORA – Sticking to its game plan of playing stick-like-glue defense, Oswego East stuck to its winning ways on Tuesday night, shutting down Waubonsie Valley, 59-43, in a non-conference game in Aurora.

Every time the Wolves (28-1) win they make program history. In winning their 14th straight game, they also extended their record for wins in a season.

“I thought defensively we got some stops in the second half,” Wolves coach Ryan Velasquez said. “We got some transition buckets that helped us out. That style of defense (they play), you don’t see it very often, they try to get after you a little bit. And on the offensive end it wasn’t perfect, but I thought at times we executed and at others we let a few slip away from us.”

Waubonsie Valley (14-12) quickly fell behind. The Warriors surrendered the first eight points of the game, but they didn’t go away.

Continuing what proved to be a game of several runs, the Warriors used a 19-10 one to take their only lead at 19-18 midway through the second quarter.

Oswego East then closed the half with a 12-0 run, getting a couple baskets from Devon Oregon, a nifty move inside from Tyler Jasek and points off turnovers from Darren Oregon and Mekhi Lowery to pull ahead 30-19 at halftime.

While the Wolves were really rolling and on the verge of breaking the game open, it didn’t happen, at least not right away. Scoring nine straight points to open the second half, the Warriors cut their deficit to 30-28.

“We came out strong in the second half, but we just have to find a consistency,” Warriors junior Shoi Rathi said. “We go on runs too, but we’ve to maintain that. We’ve got to learn how to press on the gas.”

Devon Oregon left the game with 4:30 remaining in the third quarter after suffering an injury around the bridge of his nose. The Wolves led 33-30 when he had to be helped off the floor. They proceeded to close the quarter on a 14-3 run, culminating with a wild three-pointer from Mason Blanco that developed off a Lowery block off the backboard on the other end.

“I just looked up and there were three seconds or something left and I just stepped through a guy, took the shot and it went in,” Blanco said. “Defense leads to offense and fast breaks and that really helped ustonight.”

Tyler Helbing, who led the Warriors with 12 points, opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer but that was the last rally Waubonsie Valley could muster.

Lowery’s dunk with 2:35 left in the game, the exciting ending to Waubonsie Valley’s 20th turnover of the night, all but sealed the game at 53-41.

Lowery finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. Patrick Robinson led the Wolves with 20 points, Blanco had eight and Darren Oregon had five.

“We locked in on defense and got some stops,” Robinson said. ”We kind of switched it up and threw a couple different sets on them and I think that flustered that a bit. We weren’t letting them get into their plays in their offense in the second half.”

Rathi and Jackson Langendorf each had nine points for theWarriors.

“We wanted to come in and get a good win,” Robinson said. “They’re in our sectional so we want to set the tone going into it. We want to look ahead, of course, but we have to get through these last games that we have. We still want to go into the playoffs on a good note and keep the momentum going.”