Whatever Ryan Velasquez’s halftime message is, he needs to market it.Throughout a record-breaking season, Velasquez and Oswego East have been a notorious second-half team. The Wolves also seem to possess the knack of winning close games.Both patterns continued Friday.

Neither Ned Hayes nor Max Love had much interest in another devastating loss as the boys basketball regular-season begins its final stages.

The Oswego quest to deny West Aurora a third victory over the Panthers this boys basketball season evaporated early Friday night.

Mekhi Lowery scored three times in transition during a fundamental recording of the game in the fourth quarter as Oswego East’s dominant defensive effort was rewarded with a 53-40 victory.

Seven combined players finishing in double figures?A freshman emerging from obscurity to nearly tip the scales for the road team?The schools’ student sections trying to one-up one another on a frigid Saturday afternoon?These ingredients essentially have one common denominator at a January boys basketball game in Aurora: yet another fabled encounter between two of the oldest high schools in thestate.

PONTIAC – West Aurora and St. Charles North exited the iconic Pontiac Holiday Tournament with identical fates on Thursday.The former mounted a spirited comeback against Oak Park-River Forest in the first fifth-place semifinal game, only to drop a heart-rendering 60-58 verdict.The North Stars, unlike the Blackhawks, led at halftime after doubling the second-quarter scoring against Joliet West but were eliminated from further competition with a 61-53 defeat.

The West Aurora hopes of containing the lethal shooters for New Trier unraveled in a hurry Wednesday afternoon at the famed Pontiac Holiday Tournament.The Blackhawks’ boys basketball team had their six-game winning streak unceremoniously snapped by the Trevians’ unstoppable efficiency from the perimeter.Three different New Trier players drained 3-pointers on consecutive first-quarter possessions, and West Aurora never recovered as the Trevians breezed to a 53-32 victory in the PHT quarterfinals.

The third consecutive 3-point jumper Josh Pickett drained to start the fourth quarter was truly a gift from the basketball gods.But the West Aurora emerging sophomore star was not about to relinquish its significance as the Blackhawks earned a sixth straight victory to open the Pontiac Holiday Tournament Tuesday morning.

Scouting Fox area boys basketball holiday tournaments

Here’s a look at the boys basketball season in the Southwest Prairie