Boys basketball: Bolingbrook recovers from rough start to topple Oswego East

BOLINGBROOK – It looked like things were being put on repeat for Bolingbrook on Wednesday night.

Only a few days removed from digging a big hole for itself in a loss to Brother Rice, the Raiders seemed on their way to doing it again in a nonconference matchup against Oswego East. But unlike its previous misstep, Bolingbrook was able to rally and then finish after climbing back into the game, as it emerged with a 55-53 victory.

“We just did what we needed to do to win,” Bolingbrook coach Rob Brost said. “They had a good game plan. I thought we did too. But they are 16-3, now 16-4, for a reason, because they are really good.

“But like I told our guys, we’re really good too when they decide to do what we’re supposed to do.”

That resilience came to the forefront late in the fourth quarter. After a basket by Towson recruit Mekhi Lowery that put the visiting Wolves up 49-43, Bolingbrook was able to score the next eight points. Four Raiders scored during the run, which was capped by a DJ Strong basket that gave Bolingbrook its first lead of the game, 51-49, with 3:50 to play.

The defenses took over from there. Oswego East and Bolingbrook would jostle back and forth until the game was tied at 55 with about two minutes to play. Bolingbrook wound off some time before Mekhi Cooper attacked the basket as the clock moved into the final minute.

Cooper didn’t get the shot to fall, but as the Toledo commit is prone to do, he was able to draw contact and get himself to the free-throw line.

That’s not a bad situation for Bolingbrook, as Cooper calmly stepped to the line, knocked down two free throws (he went 10 for 10 from the stripe in the contest) and netted the points that eventually led to the victory.

“I know that’s exactly what my team needs, me at the free-throw line knocking down tough shots at a time like that,” Cooper said.

Even though neither team was able to put up any points the rest of the way, it wasn’t because of a lack of opportunity. But it in the end, an unexpected defensive step up was made by Bolingbrook reserve forward Jason Lawani.

Lawani was pressed into a larger role because of the lack of availability of two of Bolingbrook’s usual big men because of injury. Lawani rose to the challenge, fencing in Oswego East on its first attempt to tie the game and collecting a loose ball and then making sure the Wolves couldn’t equalize with another stop after he wasn’t able to ice the game at the free-throw line.

“I’m proud of him, because he does whatever the team needs,” Brost said of Lawani. “He doesn’t know if he’s gonna get two minutes or 22 minutes. But tonight, it was more toward 22 minutes, but we needed them, and we needed him to defend their Mekhi [Lowery] as well, and he did a good job doing that, obviously. You’re never going to shut a player like him down, but I thought Jason did a really good job of making it tough on him, rebounding the ball especially.”

Bolingbrook appeared to be stuck in the same mode that got it in a big hole in its last game, as it quickly allowed the first nine points and trailed 16-6 at the end of the one quarter.

But the Raiders bounced back fairly quickly, putting together a 23-point quarter to be sent into the break down 31-29, and that was only after Lowery got a friendly roll just before the half. Cooper played a big part in the Bolingbrook surge, netting 14 points in the second on his way to a game-high 24 points.

The inability to extend its early advantage was telling, and once the Raiders found their groove, the Wolves had trouble putting them back in check.

“They have some really nice players, and when those guys get deep into the paint, it’s really challenging for us,” Oswego East coach Ryan Velasquez said. “And a couple of times they got deeper than we anticipated or that we wanted, and that’s never going to work out in our favor.”

Lowery led Oswego East with 15 points, and Jehvion Starwood contributed 14. All but four of those points scored by that combo came in the first half.