Boys basketball: Oswego East hustles its way to win over Oswego

Oswego East was pulling away from Oswego late in the third quarter during Tuesday’s Southwest Prairie Conference game as junior Andrew Pohlman was diving onto the hardwood forcing turnovers.

The Wolves fought through a sluggish start where they trailed after one quarter, winning big on the road, 60-38.

“It’s plays like that when you are up 17 [points] that you can show them on film like, ‘Hey, this kid is so unselfish, he’s diving on the floor because he loves to play and he cares about his teammates so much that he’ll do anything,’” said Wolves coach Ryan Velasquez. “Our guys are learning from his actions so that’s great to see.”

Pohlman drilled a corner three midway through the third quarter to give the Wolves a 39-21 lead. He made a diving steal with the Wolves ahead 43-26 later in the quarter with seconds remaining. He just doesn’t stop.

“He’s a dog,” Velasquez said. “He gives you everything. He pours it all out.”

A former lacrosse player who also just finished playing football for the Wolves, Pohlman’s approach is simple for whatever field he steps onto.

“Playing hard,” he said. “I just try to play the hardest I can and do whatever needs to be done.”

Pohlman scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds.

“He brings energy and plays smart and is doing the dirty work,” Wolves junior Noah Mason said of his teammate. “He’s boxing out and getting the loose balls and rebounds on the defensive end.”

The Wolves (7-3, 3-1) were looking for a nice balanced attack and got it with seniors Jahvion Starwood and Andrew Wiggins contributing with 13 and 11 points respectively. Mason Lockett added nine points. Starwood also provided the theatrics with a pair of his trademark one-handed southpaw slams.

“It’s kind of tricky with these rivalry games; you’re not really sure what you’re going to get,” Velasquez said. “I thought we settled in after we were careless with the ball at the start. And then we kind of started to push the pace. Even though they were in a zone we wanted to race the ball up and get them on their heels a bit.”

Oswego (0-10, 0-5) led 10-8 after one quarter thanks to a buzzer-beating putback from Dasean Patton.

“We had a good start to the game in the first quarter, but in the second quarter we just couldn’t buy a bucket,” Panthers coach Chad Pohlmann said. “I think if we hit a few of those shots we could’ve kept it close. Our shooting woes have really hurt us the last few games. We will eventually break through.”

The Panthers seemingly had every positive play basically erased with responses from the Wolves.

Like when Nolan Petry nailed a three with 13 seconds left in the opening half to pull the Panthers to within 24-15 while giving them their first points since a dunk from Patton four-and-a-half minutes earlier. It was a huge bucket, at least until Lockett buried a three of his own right before the buzzer seconds later.

Patton led the Panthers with eight points.