Host Oswego East ready for title game debut

Oswego East had a miserable start to the second half of Friday night’s game against York at the Wolves Holiday Classic.

But the Wolves had one heck of a finish to that same third quarter to rally for a 49-42 victory.

Oswego East (8-6) will face Metea Valley at 7 p.m. in the championship game. It’s the first time in program history that the Wolves advanced to the title contest.

“I think when you get some streaks going and play well, then the other team is not going so well,” Oswego East coach Abe Carretto said. “We subbed Sonja Lewis, Toni Robinson and Duarte Bri and they got physical and I think that got the starters excited once they got back in the game.”

York extended its 24-21 halftime lead to 33-23 after scoring the first nine points of the third quarter, but it didn’t rattle the Wolves,

Oswego East answered the Dukes by closing the quarter on a 13-1 scoring run to take a 36-34 advantage to begin the fourth quarter. The Wolves drained three straight three-pointers to close out the third, including a 25-footer from Venita Parsons (15 points) at the buzzer.

“After all our turnovers in the first half I think we turned up our intensity,” Parsons said. “When I hit the buzzer beater I think it lit everyone up and helped us turn the game around.”

York’s Molly Schlecht (12 points) finally put points on the board with 5:50 left in the fourth quarter to knot the contest at 36-36, but the Wolves answered with a 6-0 run, led by a pair of drives to the basket from LeRoyia Campbell (12 points).

The Dukes were able to claw back to within five points twice the rest of the way, including with 1:06 left, but the Wolves disallowed any sort of late rally.

“I thought we did a great job of getting around their screens and helping out,” Carretto said. “And I thought we did a better job of rebounding in the second half.”