Oswego East basketball earns long-awaited victory

After three winless years in the Hoops for Healing tournament, the Oswego East boys' basketball team snapped the skid in Monday's season opener with a 62-61 victory over Neuqua Valley.

The Wolves had not won a season opener since 2011, and have gone a combined 0-15 in the last three tournaments.

"The monkey's off our back a little bit, especially to win that first game and get off to a winning start," Oswego East head coach Steve Szymanski said."It's nice to get that win, and I know we have the players. As long as we play together and continue doing what we're doing, I think we're in the right spot."

The lead changed possession throughout the fourth quarter, with a wild final two minutes of play. Neuqua Valley held a 57-56 lead when Oswego East junior guard Trevor Ross (17 points) was called for his fifth foul. With both teams in the double bonus, the Wildcats could not expand on their lead going 0-for-2 at the line.

Oswego East junior guard Stephon Harris put up the next two points and then pulled down a defensive rebound on the opposite end for a critical momentum swing with under a minute to play. Junior Tahj Oliver was fouled on his basket and completed the three-point play to give the Wolves a 61-57 lead with 41 seconds remaining.

Harris added one at the foul line to give Oswego East the four-point lead, which proved to be just enough as Neuqua Valley's Ryan Phillips sank a three-pointer at the buzzer.

"It's exciting to see him have a great game," Szymanski said of Harris. "We told him before the season he needed to be the double-double guy every game and he did that."

Harris finished with a game-high 25 points and 13 rebounds in his debut with Oswego East. The transfer student joined the Wolves last season, but did not play.

"I've been waiting a whole year – year and a half, actually, so I was excited to get back out there," Harris said.

Oswego East led 8-6 after the opening quarter, but Neuqua Valley went on a 6-0 run to lead 17-13. Ross knocked in six points in the second period including a late basket for a 24-22 lead at intermission. Neuqua Valley's Joe Sieger (21 points) hit a pair of three-pointers to start the second half and the Wildcats pulled ahead 30-24, but Harris and Ross worked in tandem to tie the game at 30 on the next momentum swing.

"We knew they were going to be bigger than us in every position, but we knew we were quicker and faster so we spread them out a lot and tried to get to the rim and it definitely paid off," Szymanski said. "We settled in, we didn't panic and we just kept playing. Last year we might have panicked in that situation, but this year they handled it well. They're young guys, but they're growing up."

Neuqua Valley would never lead by more than four points heading into the fourth quarter, and Harris scored 13 of his 25 in the final period to help the Wolves hold on down the stretch. Oswego East did take one loss in the opener as senior Kyle Singleton went out with a possible broken right wrist after starting in Monday's game and playing 11 minutes.

Tournament pool play resumes on Tuesday at Naperville North with Oswego East facing Hinsdale Central (0-1) at 5:30 p.m. before the Wolves face Naperville North (1-0) on Wednesday. Championship play will take place on Friday at Oswego beginning at 2:30 p.m.