Boys basketball: Oswego, Sandwich show improvement at Morris Shootout

MORRIS – For the better part of two days, the 37th Morris Shootout boys basketball event ran as smoothly as ever.

Unfortunately, there was a slight glitch at the end of the tournament. On June 26, DeKalb had reached the title game of the championship bracket, where the Barbs were to take on Morton. The Barbs, who were playing with a short-handed roster to begin with, had suffered an injury during the semifinals. Therefore, they did not want to risk injury to any other players or force them to play more minutes than they already were and forfeited the title game, giving Morton the championship.

“It is an unfortunate ending,” Morris basketball coach and tournament director Joe Blumberg said. “Given the forecast leading into this week, I feel like we lucked out with the weather and it was not as hot as previous tournaments we’ve had.

“I feel bad for Morton that they weren’t able to win the title on the court like they wanted to, but safety was an issue for DeKalb, and we certainly understand that.”

The 32-team, two-day event was a success for area teams, both in the sense of wins and losses as well as taking positive steps toward the coming season.

Oswego

The Panthers went 1-2 in Tuesday’s pool play, but bounced back in a big way in Wednesday’s Maroon Bracket. Oswego started bracket play with a win over Morris, then topped Lake Forest in the bracket semifinals. In the bracket title game, the Panthers’ Dasean Patton hit a turn-around 3-pointer from near the right sideline to cap a double-digit second-half comeback and secure a 63-61 win over Galesburg for the bracket championship.

“The guys really competed well,” first-year Oswego coach Nick Oraham said. “To play six games in two days against competition like this is really tough, and the kids responded well. Our second five did a really good job of keeping us in it when they were on the floor.

“Things have gone well this summer. We have a lot of buy-in from the kids and they are starting to believe. To finish this tournament with three wins is a nice end to our summer.”

Sandwich

The Indians went 0-3 in Tuesday’s pool play and were placed in Wednesday’s Consolation Bracket. They opened bracket play with a loss to Dundee-Crown before finishing with a win over Streator.

“We have more size than we usually do,” Sandwich coach Kevin Kozan said. “We have a 6-7 sophomore [EJ Treptow] and a pair of 6-5 twins [Quinn and Dom Rome]. We will be a little different with our inside-out game, but we still have to guard and stay with our identity.

“We want the kids to just go out and play basketball and learn from their mistakes. A shootout like this is good for us. We get to see a lot of teams we wouldn’t normally see. We played Minooka and Bolingbrook, which are both 4A teams and we played three 3A teams. We’re a 2A team. It helps us to compete against these bigger teams and stay in games with them.”

WEDNESDAY’S SCORES

Burlington Central 50, Pontiac 43; Dundee-Crown 47, Sandwich 36; Tolono Unity 67, Streator 63; Normal U-High 52, Ottawa 40; Oswego 59, Morris 39; Oak Forest 37, Minooka 34; Eastland 62, Belvidere 42; Galesburg 51, Lake Park 39; Burlington Central 56, Normal U-High 42; Tolono Unity 49, Dundee-Crown 36; Pontiac 33, Ottawa 27; Sandwich 48, Streator 43; Minooka 51, Morris 34; Lake Park 64, Belvidere 30; Oswego 63, Oak Forest 57; Galesburg 67, Eastland 61; Tolono Unity 58, Burlington Central 54; Oswego 63, Galesburg 61; Benet Academy 46, Neuqua Valley 45; DeKalb 57, Bolingbrook 46; Morton 65, Deerfield 55; Waybonsie Valley 59, Loyola 42; Plainfield South 51, Bloomington Central Catholic 46; Marmion Academy 62, Joliet Central 57; Lake Forest 61, Plainfield North 35; Collinsville 56, Kankakee 55; Bolingbrook 76, Neuqua Valley 46; Marmion Academy 56, Plainfield South 55 (OT); Collinsville 38, Lake Forest 50; Collinsville 74, Marmion Academy 40.