Cold shooting costs West Aurora in title game loss
The West Aurora boys basketball team truly had to go to Plan B Friday night in Oswego in the Hoops for Healing Holiday Tournament championship game.
The Blackhawks missed all eight of their 3-point field-goal attempts in each of the opening two quarters against Oswego East.
West Aurora would claw, scrap and hustle to fight back from a considerable early deficit, but the team ultimately fell 63-51 after also misfiring on all nine 3-point attempts after the intermission.
"If (your 3-point attempt) didn't go the first time, try 24 more times to try and get it in," West Aurora coach Brian Johnson said of the Blackhawks' 0-for-25 performance from beyond the arc. "We have to learn from it. We just can't be a team that chucks up 3s and lives by that."
Oswego East (4-0) prevailed in the early-season battle of unbeatens with superior bookend quarters to overcome the West Aurora excellence in the two middle periods.
The Wolves scored 22 of the first 30 points of the game, and the largest spread of the game was 29-14 midway through the second quarter.
But West Aurora (3-1) finally came to life in the last four minutes before the break.
Hezzy Salter was a revelation for the Blackhawks in their four tournament games at Oswego.
Known more for his football skills as a running back, Salter, who received very limited playing time last year in the Blackhawks' Class 4A sectional-championship season, followed up back-to-back 20-plus-point games with 10 points and 9 rebounds.
"Hezzy, once again, had a heck of a game," Johnson said
Kelvin Balfour, who in conjunction with Salter, completely turned around the Blackhawks' fortunes to close out the first half and begin the third quarter.
Balfour, a junior forward, had a team-high 16 points and 7 rebounds.
"We had our heads down at the end of the first quarter," Balfour said. "I tried to get us back in the game with my leadership. (Poor perimeter shooting) was a huge mental strain. We rely on our 3-point shooting."
Salter and Balfour combined for 11 consecutive points for West Aurora to narrow its halftime deficit to 29-25.
Salter then opened the third with a 3-point play, and Marquise Walker, the Blackhawks' Oswego bracket MVP, gave the team its first lead moments later with a putback.
Walker, the senior shooting guard, finished with 14 points.
West Aurora had two 3-point leads in the third quarter, but Oswego East never trailed again after Kamron Battle (16 points) - son of West Aurora legend Kenny - opened the fourth with an inside score.
Ray J. Dennis, a Boise State recruit who had 12 points for Oswego East, was the Naperville North bracket MVP.