Oswego East ends ACC's unbeaten start
Along with hundreds of Aurora Central and Marmion fans who crammed into the Chargers' gym Saturday night to watch ACC win in overtime was a set of eyes that noticed something not quite perfect about that undefeated Chargers team.
Those eyes belonged to Oswego East coach Jason Buckley, who thought a quick defensive team like his Wolves could cause the Chargers problems.
The Wolves did just that Monday in the opening game of the Waubonsie Valley Christmas Classic. The Chargers saw their 7-point halftime lead - and their undefeated season - slip away with a disastrous third quarter.
Oswego East (4-5) outscored Aurora Central (10-1) 17-4 in the third quarter, then added the first 10 points of the fourth quarter for a 27-4 avalanche that lifted the Wolves to a 64-54 victory.
"We saw them Saturday night against Marmion and didn't think Marmion put enough ball pressure on them," Buckley said. "We didn't know that necessarily was going to work, but we knew we needed to do it to have a chance."
Time after time the Chargers couldn't even run their offense as Oswego East used its quickness to force turnovers or low-percentage shots. The Chargers turned it over 6 times in the third quarter and 4 times in the first three minutes of the fourth as the game slipped away.
"I think it just frustrated us," said ACC senior Anthony Kelley. "Up to this point now, we haven't really seen anybody that has got in our face that much. We buckled and couldn't get anything going. That was a big problem."
Kelley, who led ACC with 18 points, had been responsible for giving the Chargers a 33-26 halftime lead. His back-to-back 3-pointers to close the second quarter capped runs of 14-2 and 8-0.
The Chargers made 6 of 10 shots in the second quarter, then just 1 of 8 in the third.
"They just took it to us and we played soft, we played scared," Chargers coach Nate Drye said. "We were just bad today. A lot of the little things we've been doing wrong and were able to get away with thus far came back to bite us today."
Foul trouble also hurt Aurora Central. Mike Adams picked up his third and fourth fouls in the first 1:44 of the third quarter and sat while the Wolves took control.
"That always hurts us because he is always big on the boards," Kelley said. "It definitely slowed us down."
Adams returned in the fourth to ignite one last rally. After scoring 4 points in a 10:28 stretch to start the second half, the Chargers put 9 points on the board in 32 seconds on baskets by Adams and Matt Wagner, a slam off a steal by Kelley, and an Adams 3-pointer after another steal.
They eventually closed within 56-50 on Steve Hollon's basket but never could fully recover from their poor third quarter. The Chargers will try to bounce back today against Glenbard North.
"Sometimes you have to take a loss to gain something from it," Kelley said. "From the experience today we know a lot more of what we need to do as far as backdoor cuts, just playing with people up in our face. We'll know this is how teams will play us as the road goes on, it's going to be tougher, I think we'll be all right. I guess it was kind of a first punch, we took a step back, we'll take this game and learn from it and come back strong tomorrow."