Team swat, led by Mekhi Lowery, was in the house Tuesday night for Oswego East. And Neuqua Valley didn’t have an answer.
Lowery, a 6-foot-5 junior guard, threw a block party for the Wolves in the Class 4A Oswego Sectional semifinals.
His team blocked 12 shots, and Lowery finished with six.
“I haven’t seen that in 36 years of coaching,” Neuqua’s Todd Sutton said. “That’s incredible. Twelve blocks? In a high school game?
“A lot of those were layups taken off the board, and we needed those layups.”
Those blocked shots keyed a strong defensive effort that led top-seeded Oswego East to a 54-40 victory over the fourth-seeded Wildcats.
It sends the Wolves (33-1) to the 7 p.m. Friday sectional championship game against the winner of Wednesday’s semifinal between second-seeded Bolingbrook and third-seeded Andrew.
Senior forward Erikas Gurskas came off the bench and sank a short jumper in the lane to give fourth-seeded Neuqua (22-11) a 13-12 lead after one quarter.
The second quarter then belonged to Lowery and the Wolves.
“I’m always trying to stop the big guys in the paint and try not to pick up a foul while trying to be the best rim protector I can be for my team,” Lowery said. “I definitely surprise people sometimes with my versatility defensively.”
Cole Vonnahme gave Neuqua its last lead of the game at 15-14 by dropping in a layup with 6:30 remaining in the second quarter.
The Wildcats didn’t score again in the first half, however, and the Wolves closed with a 12-0 run that included a 3-pointer from Lowery off a kick-out pass from Patrick Robinson.
“The doors blew off in that one — that second quarter was rough,” Sutton said. “But give them credit. We couldn’t score against them. Forty points? That’s playing some defense.”
It was a sloppy first half, though, with Oswego East turning the ball over 12 times and Neuqua 10.
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“Practice all week was about starting off strong,” Lowery said. “We always like to turn our defense into offense and that come with steals.
“I think we were confusing them with our defense because we kept switching it up with a couple different zones and a couple man defenses. They weren’t really getting into their sets correctly and we were able to convert.”
Senior guard DeVon Oregon led Oswego East’s balanced attack with 14 points. Twin brother Darren Oregon scored 13 points, while Lowery had 11 and Robinson added nine.
Robinson also had four assists and three blocked shots. Ryan Johnson added two blocked shots and Darren Oregon had another.
“We always want to close out,” Oregon said “We don’t want to fly past a dude, so Mekhi and I try to time up our jumps and just get the ball.”
Lowery had two of his blocked shots in the pivotal second quarter as the Wolves were the model of consistency, scoring 14 points in each of the final three quarters.
Oswego East coach Ryan Velasquez was asked how Lowery can have so much success with blocked shots.
“His arms go on for days, he’s so long,” Velasquez said. “We were kind of concerned when he drew that charge to start the game, but he didn’t let it affect him.
“We said, ‘Do what you do, don’t hesitate.’ I thought he played with a lot of confidence. He does so many good things on the defensive end. Maybe offensively he doesn’t fill the stats, but defensively, he gets it done.”
With this one done, the Wolves will take aim Friday at the program’s first sectional title.
“We’ll be ready,” Lowery said. “We’re locked in. We have a next-game mentality. As soon as we touch the locker room after this win, we’re locked in for Friday.”