Wolves reach regional final for first time

Updated: March 23, 2011 2:08PM

The growth of the Oswego East girls basketball program has been slow and steady, but to this point the program had yet to make its mark in state tournament play.

Despite winning 60 games over the last three regular seasons, the Wolves had never advanced to a regional final in school history. That hurdle was cleared Tuesday night in the semifinal round of the Downers Grove South Class 4A regional as East earned a 52-48 win over the tournament hosts.

The win improves the 10th-seeded Wolves' record to 21-6 and they will play second-seeded Waubonsie Valley at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Downers Grove South, seeded seventh, finishes the season at 16-11.

"This is a testament to how hard we worked and our teamwork," Oswego East coach Nate Eimer said. "As a program, people don't realize sometimes it takes a while to take those steps and I think every year we kept taking those steps. These kids took a huge step forward for us (Tuesday)."

The two teams had already seen each other, with the Mustangs picking up a 44-39 win Dec. 28 at the Oswego East holiday tournament. East moved out to a 17-9 advantage after the first quarter, but the Mustangs covered that deficit with an 8-0 run and led 25-24 at the break, leading to a nip-and-tuck second half.

The Wolves finally took the lead for good at 45-44 when Kayla Boers canned a 17-foot jumper from the left wing with three minutes to play. Exactly one minute later, Ameera George made one of the biggest plays of the game when she scooped up a loose ball underneath the basket and laid the ball in while drawing a foul.

She converted the free throw to push East to the 48-44 advantage, then Venita Parsons made two free throws 21 seconds later to give the Wolves their largest lead of the second half at six points.

"It's not about Xs and Os this time of year, how well you shoot and things like that, it's who wins those loose balls," Eimer said of George's play. "The ball was on the ground and Ameera picked it up and got the and-one."

The Mustangs made it a one possession game (50-47) when Carly Saraceno (16 points) nailed a three-pointer with 1:09 to play, but Arneasa Blair iced the game with a free throw to cap the game's scoring with 17 seconds left.

Boers led the Wolves with 14 points, including six in the final quarter, to go with nine rebounds. Blair added 12 points and George posted nine.

"All-around everyone did great, the (fans) cheered their hearts out, it was amazing," Boers said. "Everyone left their hearts on the court."

Waubonsie Valley 52, Metea Valley 39: Confidence and momentum are huge keys to success in the postseason.

Metea Valley had picked up plenty of both with a win Monday night over Plainfield North at the Class 4A Downers Grove South regional. Though they fell short to rival Waubonsie Valley in Tuesday's second-round contest, the 18th-seeded Mustangs gave the Warriors all they could handle through the first 3½ quarters.

Waubonsie, seeded second, finally broke Metea with a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter and pulled away to the 52-39 win. The Warriors advance and will meet Oswego East in Thursday's 7:30 p.m. title game.

"I couldn't be prouder of them," Metea coach Kris Kalivas said. "We are young and are growing, while they have played together for a couple of years and are very physical. We matched that and I am proud of what we put on the floor."

Metea (7-22) led the game for stretches throughout the first two quarters and trailed by just two (23-21) at halftime. The Mustangs took the lead at 24-23 on a three-pointer by Alyssa Fox (11 points) with 7:35 left in the third quarter.

Waubonsie responded with a 10-3 run over the next five minutes and were up 33-27 on a putback by Erica Jordan with just over two minutes left in the third. But the Mustangs continued to hang in there and trailed by just five (41-36), when Lori Obendorf knocked down a putback with 4:01 left in the game.

The Warriors (23-4) took over from there. With Becky Williford spearheading the defense in the backcourt, Waubonsie took advantage of several Metea turnovers down the stretch which led to four easy layups over the final spurt.

"We chipped away at the easy turnovers and that picked up the momentum for us and allowed us to get some easy transition breaks," said Williford, who had 12 points. "Basketball is a game of runs, and what we needed to do was go on a run and stop them. At one point we were trading baskets and we couldn't do that."

Gratia Brooks led Waubonsie with a game-high 15 points, while Tanysha Gardner-Walls added 10 points and Tami Morice posted nine. Obendorf paced Metea with 12 points and seven rebounds, while Fox tossed in 11.

While it was the third time the two teams had played this season and there were few surprises between them, the Warriors know they have to step up their game and play better Thursday if they want to win their fifth consecutive regional title.

"It's tournament time, and there is no excuse for us to not come ready to play," Waubonsie coach Kim Connell said. "We struggled and looked slow and tired. In tournament time you can't make mistakes and expect to win."

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