Oswego rallies from 16 down in 4th, beats Dundee-Crown
Oswego rallied from a 16-point fourth quarter deficit to beat upset-minded Dundee-Crown 59-52 in quarterfinal action at the 92nd annual Chuck Dayton Classic Friday in DeKalb.
Cold Chargers shooting and an intensified press turned the tide for Oswego, the top seed and defending tournament champion. The Panthers scored 28 points to D-C's five in the final frame.
D-C shot only 20 percent (2-10) in the last eight minutes and turned the ball over seven times due to Oswego's man-to-man pressure.
The Panthers will face Naperville Central, 69-45 winners over Huntley, in a semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
D-C, seeded eighth, squares off with Huntley at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
"That was something else. Twenty-eight to 5 in a quarter is pretty good," said Oswego coach Chad Pohlmann. "It all came from our pressure. They even had a hard time getting the ball in bounds sometimes."
"That was a tough one. I thought we played really well for 30 minutes of the game basically," D-C coach Lance Huber said. "They are very, very good. Their speed and athleticism got to us a little bit and they got a couple of turnovers and converted them into easy baskets, and we had a really hard time scoring."
Oswego (10-1) trailed 47-31 at the start of the fourth quarter. Connor McCance (12 points) started the comeback with a dunk on a putback at the 6:46 mark of the period.
"We made some defensive adjustments and we started finding Connor a little better in the second half. We got him some touches," Pohlman said. "He made some impact plays. His dunk energized us."
The Chargers (6-4) still led 47-39 with 2:40 left to play. Jack Kahoun (12 points) narrowed the margin to five points with a 3-pointer from the left corner 32 seconds later. Back-to-back layups and a free throw by Joey Niesman closed the gap to a point with 1:40 left to play.
D-C turned the ball over on the ensuing possession. Oswego misfired on a shot but Kobe Adams grabbed the rebound and scored on a putback to put his team in front with 1:30 left to play.
An Adams free throw followed by a Kahoun bucket and free throw put Oswego up 53-48 with 1:25 to go. Adams led all scorers with 22 points.
"I knew I had to get the rebound," Adams said. "There was a smaller dude on me, so I knew I had to get it."
Trayvon Hatcher's basket (15 points) pulled D-C within three twice in the last minute but the Chargers had to foul. The Panthers connected on the free throws to maintain the lead.
Using a 1-3-1 zone, D-C stymied Oswego's offense in the first half holding the Panthers to 25 percent shooting (6-23).
"I didn't think we could guard them one-on-one," Huber said. "Their team speed is really, really good and we thought that the 1-3-1 zone would be the best way to neutralize them It worked for a while."
"Give them credit, they are tough matchup. I really like their style," Pohlmann said. "They play an old school 1-3-1. We hardly ever see it in our conference."
In an effort to avoid going up against the 6-foot-9 McCance, the Chargers shot 3-pointers and short range jump shots. Kyle Huber scored 12 of his team-high 16 points from beyond the arc.
D-C led 15-9 after the first quarter and 31-15 at halftime.
Doug Miller scored 14 points for the Chargers.