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OSWEGO – Freshman Ethan Vahl scored 23 points in his first high school game to make a winner of new Oswego coach Nick Oraham as the Panthers rallied in the fourth quarter to beat Rockford Guilford 60-56 during Monday night’s Hoops for Healing tournament game.
“He’s got it all for a 15-year-old,” Oraham said. “He has really good court vision. He can shoot the heck out of the ball. He handles it really well. He just has to work on some of his decision-making skills, but that’s going to come as he continues to grow and see more games.”
In the first half, Vahl turned a long 3-pointer into a four-point play. He turned what appeared to be a turnover into two points, going from three-quarters court and finishing on an acrobatic play. He turned the Vikings’ defense around when he juked them with a pass to the corner that Luke Roller swished from 3. He appears destined to be turning heads this winter.
While Vahl was immediately making his presence felt, senior DeSean Patton delivered one of his trademark hard-nose plays, winning a loose ball and turning it into an easy score. It gave the Panthers a 29-15 lead midway through the second quarter.
“Ethan is a heck of a player,” Patton said. “I trust him. I know he can go out there and hit a shot and play defense. And I trust all my guys. Everybody has the ability to score and make the right plays. I trust all my teammates. I think that’s what happened. We came out and trusted everybody and got the job done.”
Oswego (1-0) saw its lead sink to just 34-28 heading into half.
Rockford Guilford (0-1) trailed 42-36 after a 3 from Patten, but answered with a 12-0 run, culminating on a high-rising one-handed tap-in from Je’ Sean Frye to take a 48-42 with under six minutes left to play.
A step-back 3 from Vahl finally put an end to that difficult stretch. Roller’s third 3 of the day tied the game at 50-50 with 3:41 left. Another basket from Vahl with 1:08 remaining gave the Panthers a 56-53 advantage. Mariano Velasco’s two free throws with 20.8 seconds left gave the Panthers a 59-56 lead.
“I thought some guys made some really big plays,” Oraham said. “Ethan (Vahl) in the paint. Brayden (Borrowman) walling up defensively and getting that jump ball. DeSean’s (Patton) rebounding and Mariano’s (Velasco) free throws. I thought it was a total team win, especially late down the stretch.”
A game-tying 3 from the Vikings was off the mark and Patton snagged the rebound. He’d split two free throws after getting fouled with 7.4 seconds left.
“He’s our guy and he’s the best player from last year,” Oraham said. “He probably didn’t score and do as much as he would’ve really liked tonight. He’s all about one thing. He just wants to win. That’s all he wants. He’s one of the most unselfish kids I’ve ever seen. He could score or get to his spot on the floor pretty much anytime he wants offensively, but for him to stay within the offense and do things our way and not his way I think it shows a lot of character and I’m lucky that he’s on our side.”
Oswego went 4-25 last season. It’s a new year.
“It was good to see our guys fight through some adversity,” Oraham said. “I told them at the end of the game that winning is really difficult. There hasn’t been a lot of it from last year and going into this year so I didn’t know how we would handle ourselves down the stretch.”
Patton scored 11 points, Roller had nine, Velasco chipped in with eight and Tyrell Mays had six.
“I think we were a little slow in the third quarter but in the fourth quarter we realized we were down and had to pick it up,” Patton said. “All the guys contributed and we won the game.”