Aurora Central goes cold against Oswego

For the second consecutive year, Aurora Central Catholic's basketball season came to an end at the hands of Oswego.

A year ago, the top-seeded Chargers suffered a 64-61 setback to No. 2 seed Oswego on the Panthers' home floor in the Class 3A regional finals. Oswego went on to place second in the state.

On Friday night, it was the third-seeded Chargers' turn to play the role as underdog while playing at home against the top-seeded Panthers (22-6).

But once again, the Panthers' size, defense and depth proved too much during their 59-46 3A regional championship triumph over the Chargers (16-12).

"We played solid defense and that's what it takes this time of year," said Oswego coach Kevin Schnable. "You're going to have these spells during the playoffs where you don't shoot it well and you have to rely on your defense. That's what we did."

While the Panthers were just 2-for-16 from beyond the 3-point arc, it was still better than the Chargers' paltry 3-for-28 performance on 3-point attempts.

Any kind of an ACC comeback bid was pretty much thwarted by its 0-for-16 shooting on second-half 3-pointers.

"We're not going to win against a good team like that if we can't knock down some shots," said Chargers coach Nathan Drye, whose teams have posted a 65-21 mark the past 3 seasons. "I don't know what happened tonight - we just couldn't knock down a shot.

"I never thought we'd shoot like this. I was happy with every other aspect of the game - it's just that we didn't shoot well."

Despite being out-rebounded 31-14 in the first half (50-30 for the game), the Chargers were still within striking distance, trailing 32-23 at the break.

Oswego, which scored the game's first 8 points, jumped out to a 19-9 first-quarter lead and extended it to 24-13 midway through the second quarter.

However, the Chargers roared back with a 10-2 run, capped by Paul Kaminski's layup that cut the deficit to 26-23 with 2:20 remaining in the opening half. Senior guard Joey Guth knocked down his only 3-pointer of the contest to begin the rally.

Led by senior Joe Kwiatkowski, who scored all 13 of his points in the first half, Oswego tallied the final 6 points of the second quarter to extend the halftime margin to 9.

"That was a big momentum swing," admitted Drye. "We got back in it with our press and then they pushed out ahead again. It's hard overcoming a mountain like that because it's real hard to get second shots against them."

Bruising 6-foot-4 senior forward Andrew Ziemnik (11 points, 18 rebounds) and rock-solid 6-4 senior center Collin Siebert (8 points, 9 rebounds) took turns punishing the Chargers under the basket.

However, ACC refused to fold, thanks in part to the superior ballhandling effort from senior point guard Steve Hollon. The Chargers committed only 6 turnovers through the first 3 quarters while trailing 42-32.

"That's all Steve," Drye said of Hollon. "He just doesn't turn the ball over. He has been a rock for us all four years."

It also marked the final prep game for Guth (12 points), who was hounded into a 4-for-18 effort from the field by Oswego's Kwiatkowski and Kenny Jones.

"The ball wasn't falling at all for me tonight," said Guth, who finished with 103 3-pointers this season. "It was a frustrating way to end it."

Sophomore Ryan West added 10 points for Oswego, which advances to Tuesday's Hampshire sectional semifinals against Marian, which defeated Prairie Ridge 56-52 Friday night at Woodstock North.