Girls basketball: Hot-shooting Aubrey Lamberti, Oswego East start fast, beat Yorkville for sixth straight win

YORKVILLE – Aubrey Lamberti took a shot to the face Thursday that had the Oswego East sophomore applying an ice pack to her cheek and gauze for a bloody nose afterward.

Lamberti, though, has been making more shots than taking them lately.

The 5-foot-9 guard/forward scored career-highs in back-to-back games last week. Lamberti hit a game-winning 3-pointer to beat West Aurora on Tuesday. And she picked up right where she left off Thursday.

Lamberti hit four 3-pointers and scored 16 of her game-high 22 points in the first quarter at Yorkville. Oswego East rode that early hot shooting to a 60-53 Southwest Prairie Conference win, the Wolves’ sixth straight.

“She’s playing well,” Oswego East coach Abe Carretto said. “The whole team in general is doing a lot better seeing each other. When they’re doing the right things, she’s in an open spot. She crashes the glass a lot, and she runs the floor in transition, and she’s been making shots.”

Maggie Lewandowski added 14 points, five assists and two steals, Desiree Merritt nine points and Ava Valek eight points and eight rebounds for Oswego East (6-4, 4-0), which shot 47% in the first half to lead 42-29 at halftime. Merritt banked in a 3-pointer to end the third quarter with the Wolves ahead 56-40, and they weathered a late charge from Yorkville (6-3, 3-1).

Brooke Spychalski scored 21 points, Kenzie Sweeney 12 and Lainey Gussman nine for the Foxes.

Lamberti, a second-year varsity player, called Tuesday’s shot to beat West Aurora 44-43 the biggest of her young career.

She sure looks like she has many more to come. Lamberti made her first four shots Thursday and sank four of Oswego East’s eight 3-pointers. Lamberti, who also had eight rebounds and three steals, came a point shy of matching her career high.

Lamberti’s fourth 3 of the first quarter had Oswego East ahead 25-18 after a hot-shooting, furiously-paced first eight minutes.

“It’s my team moving the ball a lot, passing the ball, helping me get that open look,” Lamberti said. “In practice we will do a little bit of everything, ton of transition, but we do a lot of shooting too, which I think is one of my better things to do.”

Lewandowski got going with 12 of her 14 points over the middle two quarters for Oswego East, which has been doing a lot of good things lately. The Wolves’ six straight wins followed an 0-4 start.

“For the most part we’re taking care of the basketball, our defense has got a lot better, we’re doing a few different things, and we’re also making more shots,” Carretto said. “Early on this season those shots were not falling. Now they’re falling.”

Yorkville coach Kim Wensits didn’t need reminding that her opponent came in on a hot streak.

The Foxes hung in there early with offensive rebounding, 13 for the game, but were playing catch-up throughout due to Oswego East’s accurate shooting. The final score was the closest margin in the second half.

“I knew coming in they’ve been playing some great basketball. They dominated Plainfield North the other day, and they did shoot lights out, holy cow,” Wensits said. “I felt part of that was our defensive effort wasn’t quite what it needed to be. Good players will knock down open shots.”

Wensits gave kudos to her kids’ effort in fighting back late, but the Foxes ultimately couldn’t avoid having their four-game winning streak snapped.

“I like where we are at,” she said. “I hate losing, but I think this is a good loss, because we’re going to learn from it. I don’t want to say we were cocky, but I think we forgot that you have to earn every single victory. It’s not going to be handed to you.”