:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/NFP46PWS3JAI7ELEQPQLREQSOY.jpg)
HINSDALE – Oswego East junior guard Mekhi Lowery’s game mirrored his teammates’ on Thursday.
A day before Christmas Eve, the Wolves were headed for an unpleasant holiday break due to several players struggling hitting shots.
Lowery and star senior forward Patrick Robinson were not immune to the scoring issues.
The Wolves entered the second day of the Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic with nine double-digit victories, but their 12-game winning streak was in jeopardy late in the third quarter against Marian Catholic.
That’s when Lowery’s shot started suddenly falling, and the Wolves attacked the offensive glass for second-chance points and started forcing turnovers.
The Wolves staved off a loss by erasing a double-digit deficit to record a 54-49 victory in overtime over Marian Catholic. The Wolves (13-0) advance to Tuesday’s semifinals where they will play the winner of the Hinsdale Central and DePaul Prep game.
Lowery finished with 19 points on 6-for-9 shooting and added seven rebounds and four steals. Robinson shot an icy 4-for-15, and missed all six of his 3-point attempts, to end with nine points. DeVon Oregon, who had seven points, made three free throws in the final 30.9 seconds of overtime to keep the Wolves unbeaten. The Wolves won despite shooting 2-for-18 on 3-pointers, but tallied 11 steals and hit their free throws down the stretch. The Spartans were held to seven points in the final 12 minutes, while the Wolves finished with 15 second-chance points in the game.
“This is a huge win because we can go into Christmas break with a positive and good energy on our side,” Lowery said. “It was a close game, but it shouldn’t been that close, but we pulled it out. I just tried to lock in on defense, especially since they have a Division I prospect. We went into halftime and our coaches got us fired up and we knew we had to come out with more energy.”
The Spartans (8-5) pulled away in the second quarter behind solid defense and attacking the basket to build a 29-22 lead. Marian Catholic made six of its first eight third-quarter shots to extend the lead to 42-28 late, but Darren Oregon fueled the comeback with three steals early in the fourth quarter.
The 6-foot-5 Lowery scored five points in a 90-second stretch to cut the deficit to 44-43, then Oregon added a lay-in to give the Wolves a 45-44 lead with 3:50 left.
The Wolves missed a chance to win the game in regulation when Oregon and Ryan Johnson both missed a shot. Robinson scored on a strong baseline drive to start the overtime scoring, while the Wolves forced three turnovers on Marian Catholic’s five overtime possessions to pull out the win. Jeremiah Jones paced the Spartans with 19 points and Tre Davis scored 12 points.
“It was a great win,” Robinson said. “They had us in the first half, but we came together as a team in the second half. We came back to win. Mekhi had a really big game and came through for us even when some others couldn’t. I wasn’t having the best night, but that overtime bucket got us going. We preach defense, which creates our offense. Darren got some really good steals in the second half to let us come back and get the win.”