Boys Basketball: Minooka’s pace controls Oswego

Updated: February 7, 2012 8:59PM

Slow does not come easy to high school kids playing basketball.

Occasionally there are some coaches that are able to sell that patient style to their team, to convince them to wring every second possible out of every possession and wait for the best possible shot.

Minooka coach Scott Tanaka has done just that this season, and Tuesday the host Indians eventually found Oswego’s weakness and grabbed a 60-45 win.

“Usually you don’t find that patience in high school basketball,” Tanaka said. “But this is the first group I’ve had for four years and they have bought into it since they walked on to campus.”

Oswego guard Elliot McGaughy scored 13 of his game-high 21 points in the second quarter and the Panthers led 28-25 at the half.

Then the third quarter was all Minooka, as the Indians continually found 6-5 senior Lavell Dean and 6-4 senior Adam Reynolds in the post and outscored Oswego 22-8, including a 17-0 run to overwhelm the undersized Panthers.

Dean, who finished with 12 points and four rebounds, scored 10 in the quarter.

“We want to run long possessions,” Dean said. “It wears the defense down and makes them tired and eventually they get sloppy. It was something we wanted to do from the start, but it just started working in the third quarter.”

Reynolds scored 13 and grabbed seven rebounds. Darrin Myers added 14 points and Benjamin Heide scored 10.

Ryan West added 11 points for Oswego (12-10, 6-5).

Minooka (18-7, 9-2 Southwest Prairie) started making a name for itself this season after losing two hard-fought battles to Plainfield East, one of the state’s top teams.

“People have definitely started noticing because of those games,” Tanaka said. “We were so close, we should have had them. We’re playing some good basketball out here. People are starting to notice Minooka now. We’ve won 11 of our last 13 and hopefully that can continue.”

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