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Sports
Bench press : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisBench press
| Oswego girls' basketball team gets lift from Janiak in second half to top Cougars
| by Kristin Sharp
| 12/6/2012
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The Plainfield South girls' basketball team kept pace with Oswego for as long as it could, but a 20-point effort by the Panthers in the third quarter was more than the Cougars could handle.
Oswego (5-3) clinched its first win in Southwest Prairie play with a 60-33 victory last Friday, and moved to 1-1 on the young conference season.
Head coach Chad Pohlmann credited the players who came off the bench in the second half for giving Oswego the push they needed on the court.
Junior Alex Janiak scored six points - all after intermission - while junior Krissy Klingbeil scored five points and senior Becca Anderson scored 11, including five at the free-throw line.
"I have to credit Alex Janiak. Alex has really worked hard and I thought she sparked us," Pohlmann said. "We don't give out a game ball at the end, but if we were to give them out, she would get it. She didn't miss a day of conditioning, summer workouts, and I couldn't be more proud of her.
"Becca did a great job and knocked down quite a few free throws and had some nice putbacks. (Friday) was really, truly about our bench. Amy (Annala) and Krissy ignited us. The girls are going to have to understand that it's what it's about; playing defense. If you're not going to play defense, you're going to sit next to me."
Plainfield South sophomore guard Tyler Everett was a thorn in the Panthers' side most of the night, pouring in a game-high 16 points, and kept the Cougars in the game through the first half.
Everett's field goal late in the first quarter cut Oswego's lead to five (12-7) and her second one cut it to two, giving the Panthers a 12-10 lead at the end of the period.
Oswego sophomore Siarra O'Neill (11 points) scored the opening basket of the second quarter, but Plainfield South stayed on Oswego's heels with a free throw and Pohlmann called a timeout with Oswego leading 15-11.
Sophomore Amri Wilder sank a pair of free throws after the timeout, and Anderson's jumper prompted Plainfield South head coach Leah Carter to take a timeout with 3:02 to play in the first half and Oswego leading 19-13.
Everett completed a three-point play, and immediately followed up with a layup, cutting Plainfield South's deficit to one (19-18) with 1:34 to play in the half.
Klingbeil came off the bench and drove into the paint for a successful layup, and converted at the foul line seconds later for a 22-18 lead. Wilder also added one from the line to give Oswego a 23-18 halftime edge.
"The first half is not what we do. We're still learning how to play and handle different things at times, but the thing is that the effort has to be there and the effort wasn't in the first half," Pohlmann said. "The second half was much better. We told them at halftime that if you're going to play in the game, you have to start playing defense. I thought we did a much better job in the second half."
Sophomore Erin Sinnott (nine points) scored five quick points to start the third quarter, and Wilder fed the ball inside to Anderson for a 30-20 Oswego lead. Carter tried to keep the Cougars in the hunt by taking another timeout with 6:02 to play, but Plainfield South turned the ball over after the break and never recovered on the court.
The Cougars were already whistled for six fouls midway through the third period compared to Oswego's zero, and Anderson went 2-for-2 at the line to stretch the Panthers' lead to 15.
Klingbeil came up with a basket, Janiak was good on a putback attempt and O'Neill drained a three-pointer before the end of the quarter as Oswego led 43-24. Anderson also took two charges under the basket in the period, which only continued to Oswego's second-half momentum.
O'Neill scored early in the fourth quarter and then assisted a basket by junior Kelsey Nelson for a 47-25 lead. Sophomore Jordan Campbell also had a nice assist on a Janiak field goal late in the game, and Anderson assisted Campbell's basket to close out the game scoring for the 27-point victory.
The win came three days after suffering a 47-40 loss to Romeoville, and Pohlmann was pleased with the quick turnaround.
"We played Romeoville pretty tough," Pohlmann said. "We started off the game well and went on a 10-4 run. They're a good team and they have a couple of really talented players. We hung with them. There was a three-minute stretch where they went on an 8-0 run. We cut it to five and just couldn't recover. We were pleased with our performance, and to come back and win our first conference game is good. We've got a lot of games over these next two weeks. Any type of confidence we can get going is good for us."
On Tuesday, Oswego traveled to Minooka and came home with a 44-34 victory to improve to 2-0 in SPC action.
Oswego will travel to Plainfield East on Friday for a 6:30 p.m. game before opening play in its annual Holiday Tournament on Saturday. Oswego will face Larkin at 6 p.m. in the first round of the Orange Pool before playing Rosary on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and Naperville Central next Thursday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m.
Minooka, Neuqua Valley, Glenbard East and Batavia make up the Blue Pool, and championship play takes place on Dec. 15, beginning at 1:30 p.m. and ending with the championship game at 6 p.m.
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