Osewgo ends it for Aurora Central's seniors

They'd been in this position before, of course - down a few points late in the game, needing a big play to pull out the victory.

But this time, the things needed for Aurora Central to gain a victory wouldn't happen and host Oswego's fans were the ones storming the court following Friday's 64-61 victory in the Class 3A Oswego regional title game.

"It was a great game," Aurora Central coach Nate Drye said. "I thought two great teams went at it."

The game ends top-seeded Aurora Central's season. The Chargers finished with a 24-4 record and high school careers ended for Anthony Kelley, Mike Adams, Brian O'Donnell, Mark Brauweiler, Matt Wagner, Nick Czaja and Tom Barkei.

"It was a great year," Drye said. "I love coaching these kids. That's the worst part about it. I won't get to coach these seniors any more. They've done just a remarkable job for me. I'm really sad that it had to end like this. I love these kids."

Oswego's winning run started when they trailed 58-54 with 3:03 left after Kelley drained a 3-pointer. First Colin Seibert scored, then Jordan Mitchell hit a right wing 3-pointer and the Panthers were ahead. Andrew Ziemnik hit a free throw to give Oswego (22-6) a 60-58 lead. On the ensuing inbound pass, an Aurora Central player called time out - and the Chargers were out of timeouts, which resulted in a technical foul.

"We should have gone over specifically that we were out of timeouts," Drye said. "That was not on him. That was on me. I should have done a better job getting them ready to go out of the huddle."

From that technical, Andrew Galow hit 1-of-2 free throws. Galow was fouled on the possession after the technical and hit both free throws and the Panthers' lead was 63-58.

"Oh my gosh, it's the greatest night of my life, by far," said Galow, who finished with 16 points. "We've been talking all day that what wins championships is free throws and rebounding. We definitely did that."

Kelley kept the Chargers close with a long-range 3-pointer. Kelley finished the game and his Aurora Central career with a game-high 24-point performance.

Galow added one more free throw with four seconds remaining. Kelley had a shot on the way as the buzzer sounded, but the shot fell short, and Oswego had its first regional title since 1985.

"You know, they say to act like you've been there," Oswego coach Kevin Schnable said. "We haven't in a long time. We're going to let them enjoy the experience. We countered their runs and hung in there."

In the early portions of the game, Adams was key for the Chargers. He scored 15 points in the first half and ended his career with Aurora Central by scoring 18 points.

"(Adams) was awesome," Drye said. "He's always going to be awesome. We knew he'd be awesome. He just keeps fighting and he's a warrior out there."

Kelley scored all 16 Aurora Central points in the third quarter, but twisted his ankle late in the quarter and was hobbled the rest of the way.

"Obviously it hurt when he turned his ankle," Drye said. "He never got back to full strength."

Oswego used a 10-0 run that went from late in the third quarter to midway in the fourth to erase a 49-42 lead and keep things close the rest of the way.

"We thought ACC came out ready to play," Galow said. "They weren't missing. Then we decided we had to turn up our game, and our game starts on the defensive end."