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Sports
Under pressure : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisUnder pressure
| Oswego East girls' basketball focuses on defense
| by Kristin Sharp
| 11/15/2012
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With its all-time leading scorer off to college, and last season's top scorer now playing out of district, the Oswego East girls' basketball team is focused on an improved defense.
Second-year head coach Abe Carretto understands replacing the offensive skills of Arneasa Blair and Aysia Bugg will be difficult, but he's stressed the importance of low-scoring games to make the Wolves successful in the 2012-13 season.
"Players that were on the bench and are now starting or coming off the bench sooner, they're going to have to put the ball in the hoop," Carretto said. "Now, we have to be better on defense. Between Aysia and Arneasa, we lost probably 24 points. I don't know if we have 24 points out there. Venita (Parsons) can score more. Royia (Campbell) can score more. Offensively, I'm not sure we have all 24, so I feel defense has to be even better. If we don't make up that point total, we have to stop teams. We did a good job of that last year, but it has to be excellent. There's not much room for error on the defensive end."
Parsons, a junior guard, returns for her third varsity season after averaging 9.4 points per game last winter. Campbell, a senior guard/forward, chipped in with 6.5 points per game in the starting rotation. Both will be relied on heavily for both their skills and leadership.
"Venita is going to have to do more scoring," Carretto said. "I'm hoping she shoots a lot more free throws this year, and she's going to have to find more people to get the ball to. We lost a lot, but we still have a lot."
Carretto will also expect senior forward LaNisha Cruickshank to play a bigger role on the court this season after increasing her playing time late last season, while juniors Julianna Wadsworth and Alex Wagner should make an impact after standing out at the sophomore level last winter.
"LaNisha, toward the end of the season, played defense and did some rebounding, so she can really help us out," Carretto said. "We have some juniors who like to play physical, getting rebounds, setting screens. We have a couple seniors who were coming off the bench last year who will be playing more and who understand their defensive roles. Alex Wagner was a good shooter for the sophomore team with Julianna, and Julianna should fit just right. She's aggressive and she can score, but she'll also be able to pass the ball when Venita can't get to the ball."
Still, with the loss of players from last year's roster, Parsons believes the overall athleticism and talent remains unchanged.
"It's going to be very similar to last year," Parsons said. "We're still short so we're going to need to be fast. That's going to be our game and our mindset this season.
"Everything seems like a really good transition from last year."
"They know what to do defensively, so if we do go against bigger players, we'll be alright," Carretto added. "We did some last year, but this year I think we'll be more prepared."
The season gets underway Friday in the Naperville Central Tip-Off Tournament, as Oswego East takes on Metea Valley at 7:30 p.m. before meeting North Chicago on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
Pool play ends next Tuesday against Providence at 6 p.m. with championship play taking place Nov. 23-24.
"We've got our work cut out for us in the Naperville Central tournament," Carretto said. "Five games, which is nice. We open up with Metea Valley. We're going against three good teams right away, from what I can see. We better be ready to go. It's a good test for us because then we'll know what we need to do to get ready for our conference. We'll see where we're at."
"I'm looking forward to it. I know a lot of people at the other schools, so I know how they play," Campbell said. "I've been talking to the team and talking about what we need to switch up to be sure we play well in the tournament."
Oswego East, which shared the Southwest Prairie Conference title with Romeoville last season, will begin defending its championship when the SPC season begins Nov. 27 at Minooka.
Oswego East will also host its annual Holiday Classic Tournament Dec. 22-29, and will look ahead to other non-conference games with Bartlett and Batavia this year.
The regular season ends on Feb. 7, and after appearing in back-to-back regional finals in the last two seasons, the Wolves will look to clear the hurdle and obtain their first regional championship in school history.
"To actually make it past the regional finals - we always lose to Waubonsie. Not this year," Campbell said. "That ends this year."
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