Boys basketball: Mekhi Lowery, Oswego East outlast Romeoville

ROMEOVILLE – Oswego East talked at halftime about increasing its intensity against Southwest Prairie Conference foe Romeoville on Friday night, Dec. 6.

The Wolves listened, in particular senior Mekhi Lowery.

Lowery scored 10 of his 11 points in the second half as Oswego East pulled away from the Spartans late and came away with a 47-39 victory. Lowery also led the Wolves (15-2, 7-0 SPC) with nine rebounds.

“We were a little stagnant on both offense and defense in the first half,” Lowery said. “We emphasized having more intensity on defense and more movement on offense in the second half.

“Another point of emphasis for us was rebounding. We have a lot of long wings, but not a true center, so we needed everyone to crash the glass, and we did that a lot better in the second half.”

That was especially true in the latter stages of the third quarter.

Romeoville (12-7, 5-2) took a 28-27 lead on a floater in the lane by Meyoh Swansey, who led all scorers with 13 points, midway through the third. From then on, though, Oswego East’s defense and rebounding took over and limited Romeoville to one shot on each possession.

Meanwhile, the Wolves turned those rebounds into points, as Jehvion Starwood (11 points) gave the Wolves a 29-27 lead with a basket, which was followed by a bucket by Lowery, a pair of free throws by Andrew Wiggins and a free throw by Starwood to give Oswego East a 34-28 lead heading into the fourth.

The Wolves threatened to put the game away early in the fourth, as they started the quarter with a lob from Bryce Shoto to Lowery, and then Lowery pulled down a rebound and fired a long outlet pass to Ryan Johnson for a layup and a 38-28 lead, prompting a Romeoville timeout.

The Spartans collected themselves during the break and responded with six straight points on a pair of 3-point plays by Aaron Brown (eight points, five rebounds), a free throw by Swansey and a basket by Brown to cut the lead to 38-34. The Wolves countered with a basket by Tyler Jasek (nine points), and Romeoville answered with another basket by Swansey.

A basket by Starwood put the Wolves ahead 42-36, but Romeoville’s Troy Cicero, Jr. (five points) made a pair of free throws with 2:36 to play, and Brown made a free throw at the 2:01 mark to pull the Spartans to within one possession at 42-39.

Both defenses tightened up and neither team scored until Starwood got a breakaway and slammed home a dunk with 35 seconds remaining. Lowery added a basket and Mason Blanco finished off the scoring with a free throw.

“We rebounded a lot better in the second half,” Oswego East coach Ryan Velasquez said. “They really had a bead on us early and we had to reset at halftime. Our intensity was much better in the second half.

“I liked how we played down the stretch and pulled away. It wasn’t pretty, but we put a big emphasis on hitting the glass and rebounding and we limited their second chances in the second half. We got some big plays, like a charge taken by Micah Gatewood. We did a lot of the little things that win ballgames. Any time you can get a win on the road in this conference, that’s good.”

Romeoville coach Marc Howard was pleased with his team’s effort as well.

“We gave them everything we could for most of the game,” he said. “We had a couple shots to get it down to one possession, but we had a couple of turnovers and they stretched out the lead. Our defensive effort was right on point We were able to slow them down and hold them to 47 points.

“But, Mekhi Lowery made some key shots and showed up big for them late. He defended Troy Cicero most of the night, and Troy wasn’t able to get too many clean looks. I thought Aaron Brown had a good game for us, doing a lot of the dirty work with his rebounding and taking a big charge.

“The difference was the third quarter. We struggled to score in that quarter and we had too many one-shot possessions.”