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Girls Basketball: Oswego East closes out Naperville North in fourth
Updated: February 14, 2012 10:48PM
Down by as many as 10 points in the first quarter and trailing by two with 5:19 to play, Oswego East closed on a 15-5 run to defeat Naperville North 58-50 in a semifinal of the Waubonsie Valley Class 4A Regional Tuesday in Aurora.
Oswego East (19-8) will face the host Warriors (24-2) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday for the right to advance to the Neuqua Valley Sectional.
Tuesday’s second semifinal in Aurora was tied at 47 with 2:37 remaining when Naperville North (14-14) missed a pair of free throws with a chance to take the lead. The Huskies tied the game again at 49 with 1:54 left, but lost freshman Kayla Sharples (22 points) to fouls seconds later.
“It was a tough game because Naperville is a good team,” Oswego East coach Abe Carretto said. “They got some good seniors who can hit jumpers, and I think No. 25 (Sharples) is a freshman. She’s unreal. I think we finally started getting more rebounds and they didn’t get as many second-chance shots.”
Oswego East also converted nine of its last 14 free throws in the closing two minutes after opening the quarter by missing its first five attempts.
“We did a little better job defensively, and then we were able to get to the free-throw line and actually started putting them in,” Carretto said. “If we can hit those free throws early on, it either keeps you in the game or its gives you that lead that you need to get a little more comfortable.
“Not that you can be comfortable against any team in a regional because you never know what’s going to happen against good teams,” he added. “For a while it was either team’s game, but once they started fouling us and we hit our free throws it helped out a lot.”
Venita Parsons led Oswego East with 18 points, LeRoyia Campbell added 14 and Arneasa Blair had nine.
Naperville North got 13 points from Zoe Swift and eight from Shannon Bushman.
“We had opportunities that we weren’t able to execute,” Naperville North coach Jacqui Discipio said. “We knew Oswego East was a good team, a hard team, a physical team. We were prepared for that. I just don’t think we were able to rise to the challenge tonight.”
Discipio and her assistants struggled with whether to use or rest Sharples after her fouls began to mount. The Huskies scored just one point after she exited with her fifth foul.
“We were struggling on the bench, too,” Discipio said. “We wanted her to finish the game. But we needed the rebounding so we needed her in to keep us in the game. When she fouled out, we certainly felt that.”
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