Girls Basketball: Aysia Bugg, Oswego East rally past Romeoville

Updated: December 17, 2011 12:02AM

For three quarters, Romeoville had an answer every time Oswego East made a move in Friday’s Southwest Prairie showdown in Romeoville.

But the Spartans ran out of answers over the final 4:53.

Five-foot-7 sophomore Aysia Bugg scored a season-best 21 points, senior Arneasa Blair had 13 and sophomore Venita Parsons added nine including the go-ahead basket with 2:03 left Oswego East (7-3, 5-0) closed on a 17-7 run to defeat Romeoville 68-65.

“That was the best game we’ve played, defensively and offensively,” Bugg said. “Every time they got up, we would get up, and then they would get up and every quarter they ended up one point higher. I guess at the end we figured if we’re going to win we got to do it now.”

Romeoville (7-1, 3-1) led by as many as seven points in the second quarter at 25-18 and enjoyed an eight-point lead at 40-32 with 6:45 remaining in the third quarter. But the Spartans could not shake the pesky Wolves, who took just their second lead of the game at 51-50 early in the fourth quarter.

Back-to-back baskets by Kiera Currie and a runner by Abby Smith gave Romeoville a 58-51 lead with 5:25 remaining, but Oswego East answered with a 12-2 run aided by four free throws from Parsons and Bugg’s baseline drive.

“We couldn’t set ourselves up in an offense and that was the major problem,” Romeoville coach Julio Carrasco said. “We have some talented players, they do, too. We knew there was going to be some quickness involved, we just couldn’t take care of the ball.

“We couldn’t get ourselves in an offense,” the coach added. “When we got ourselves in an offense, we scored. We scored a lot of points. The problem is we just couldn’t get it going. Defensively, we left lot of gaps. Granted they shot really well. They shot lights out. But we allowed a lot of penetration.”

Brianna Harris led Romeoville with 24 points, Currie added 22 points and seven rebounds and Smith had 14 points and six assists.

“They changed their defense to a 2-2-1 to slow us down,” Carrasco said. “Last year, the same thing. There were two games when they got into a different defense to slow us down we just didn’t move. That’s a major problem. We’re going to fix that.

“I’m a little disappointed about the loss, but I can’t say Oswego East ain’t a great team,” he added.

Brittany McWaine added eight points and LeRoyia Campbell had seven for Oswego East.

“We took advantage of our opportunities,” Bugg said. “Our intensity level was really high. We knew they were undefeated so we had to come in and beat them.”

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