Kira Sneed is known for her trick shots at Oswego practices, but the senior guard rarely busts them out in games.
This one should qualify.
Lolllipopping a one-handed runner on a drive to the right of the basket, Sneed banked her shot high up off the glass and in during the third quarter.
“I’ll try some if we’re not doing anything in practice, but coach would probably get mad at me if I tried one in a game,” Sneed said. “I guess that one is a trick shot. I don’t even know how it went in.”
Sneed had plenty of other tricks in her bag Tuesday night. She scored 12 of her 14 points and assisted three other baskets in the second half of host Oswego’s 43-34 Southwest Prairie win over Joliet Central.
It was a tale of two halves for Oswego (6-8, 3-2).
The Panthers shot just 4-for-32 in the first half, and both teams went nearly the first seven minutes without a point in the second quarter. Oswego trailed 14-12 at halftime.
Sneed assisted on Katie Beebe’s two shots to start the third quarter, then went coast to coast for her own score, and Oswego was off to the races.
Gillian O’Neil added nine points, nine rebounds and eight blocks and Angelina Schlinger 10 points for the Panthers.
“I told my teammates at halftime that we needed to pick up the intensity and drive to the basket and stuff,” Sneed said. “We had much better energy.”
It’s taken two years in Oswego, but Sneed has settled in.
She attended a military school in Chicago, but moved to Oswego as a sophomore after both her parents died of cancer within a month’s time. She now lives with her brother and sister-in-law in Oswego.
After playing sparingly behind Kia Dwight as a junior, Sneed has found her stride this season as one of Oswego’s better players.
She scored 11 and 18 points, respectively, in wins against West Chicago and East Aurora last week. She had 18 against Plainfield East.
“The style of basketball she played at her school in Chicago was like night and day to this,” Oswego coach Dave Beebe said. “Now she’s finally getting set and comfortable.
“Last year she wouldn’t drive to the basket, it was more catch and shoot. I told her she needed to drive. She has great moves going to the basket, she can pass and she’s a great kid.”
Indeed, it’s clear where Sneed’s bread is buttered. When she puts her head down and goes to the rim, she can be a force creating her shot or others.
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Late in the third quarter, Sneed went length of the court to flip up a tough shot in traffic, giving Oswego the lead for good. Later, she got the rebound, scooted up the court and passed ahead to a streaking Schlinger for a layup.
When she wasn’t leading the offense, Sneed was in the middle of a pressure defense Oswego unleashed in the second half.
“They always tell me to just go to the basket,” Sneed said. “That’s what I try to do.”
Joshua Welge is a freelance writer for The Beacon-News.