Film a documentary about Matt Borrowman’s second season as Oswego’s coach, and the early favorite for the title would have to be “Breaking Point.”
On Friday’s bus trip to Minooka, where his team later lost 65-50 to the Indians in the Southwest Prairie Conference, Borrowman learned that junior point guard Jaylen Jones’ right thumb was fractured.
“It happened last weekend in our game with Plainfield East,” Borrowman said. “We only played him 10 minutes against Plainfield North earlier this week because of that. He couldn’t get in to the doctor until today. He’s out at least until the postseason.”
That’s bad news for the Panthers (12-4, 5-2), who have been playing more than a month without lead guard Malique Ross, who broke his wrist at Quincy.
“Doctor told me it would be five weeks, at least,” Jones said, showing off the cast on his shooting hand.
He said he jammed it against the knee of teammate Elijah Winston while reaching for a loose ball but “played through it,” thinking it was a bad sprain.
It was bad luck for the second year in a row for Jones. His sophomore season was cut short when he broke his right hand at last year’s Martin Luther King Tournament at Wheaton Warrenville South.
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“All the credit in the world to Minooka,” Borrowman said “But we were scrambling on the bus ride here. We moved a freshman (Jamal Fomby Jr.) up to give us some minutes tonight. And Derrick (Chaney) was forced to play a position he normally doesn’t play.”
Minooka took advantage of eight first-half Oswego turnovers to build a 26-17 halftime lead. That was while the Indians’ best player, 6-3 guard and Illinois State baseball recruit Joe Butler, was riding the bench for 11 minutes with early foul trouble.
Minooka guards Larry Roberts and Jonathan Butler picked up the slack, Roberts scoring 10 of his 12 points in the first half and Butler seven of his game-high 19.
“At half, we kind of called our bigs out a little bit for not playing as tough as they should be,” Borrowman said. “I thought Minooka’s post defenders did a nice job of shoving them off the blocks. We needed them to step up, and they did.”
Oswego rallied in the second half to within a point — 34-33 — led by 6-7 Brice Robinson and Conor Morton. Robinson (15 points) opened the third quarter with seven straight points, and Morton had three 3-pointers and all 11 of his points in the second half, but Butler (16 points) finished strong.
“It goes in sometimes,” Morton said of his 3-point shot. “I’m not the best shooter around, but when it’s there, it’s there. Of course, when it’s not, it’s definitely not.”
The Panthers allowed six 3-pointers.
“Defensively, we left their shooters open a few times, and you can’t do that with Minooka,” Borrowman said. “They can really shoot it.”
The Indians made 63 percent (24-of-38) of their shots, including 71 percent (17-of-24) from their top three scorers.
Borrowman said Ross is a week, maybe two away from returning to the lineup.
“We’re gonna have to be point guard by committee until then,” he said. “It’s gonna take some time, but we’ll be all right.”
Twitter @RickArmstrong28