The Maggie Lewandowski effect was on full display Thursday night for Oswego East.
When the junior guard was forced to sit with foul trouble, West Aurora managed to build an 11-point lead. When she returned, however, the Wolves rallied.
That didn’t make her time on the bench any easier, however.
“It is a helpless feeling,” Lewandowski said. “It’s hard for me to watch everybody else play.
“I can really trust them. We work a lot in practice, and they just had to do the little things while I was out. And hopefully, I could help us come back.”
And that’s exactly what Lewandowski did against the Blackhawks, leading a stirring comeback in the fourth quarter of a 50-46 Southwest Prairie West victory in Aurora.
Lewandowski ended up scoring 12 of her game-high 20 points in the final eight minutes as Oswego East (14-11, 12-2) doubled its point total through three quarters during the fourth.
Desiree Merritt scored 11 points for the Wolves and Aubrey Lamberti added eight. Brooklynn Johnson led West Aurora (10-16, 7-7) with 19 points. Niallie Evans chipped in with 12.
Oswego East trailed 33-22 in the third quarter when Lewandowski returned to the lineup. The lead was still 10 early in the fourth, but the Wolves started to chip away.
A 3-point play from Lewandowski finally gave the Wolves a 44-42 lead with 1:26 left in the game, and they never trailed again.
“It opens up the court,” Oswego East coach Abe Carretto said. “Unfortunately, we had to sit her for a bit — didn’t want to. Finally, things weren’t clicking, so we had to put her back in.”
Lewandowski said the Wolves had to be methodical to complete the comeback.
“Obviously, we’re not going to score 10 points all at once,” Lewandowski said. “It was a stop at a time to be able to come back.”
The trust Lewandowski speaks of took time to develop this season. The Wolves started out 1-4 before things started to gradually turn around.
“Early on, it wasn’t where she wanted it to be,” Carretto said. “We just kept fighting in practice, talking about things, watching film. Getting into a good flow together, that wasn’t happening. Once we did, it allowed Maggie to do things.”
Lewandowski said it was a matter of developing chemistry with her teammates.
“I know we have all the pieces,” Lewandowski said. “At the beginning, we just hadn’t put everything together yet. I didn’t know exactly what my role was.
“I started figuring out when I can get my shots in the offense and how I can help the team get their shots too. Once we started playing conference games, it started to click with the chemistry.”
West Aurora coach Teresa Waldinger noted the difficulty of matching up with Lewandowski, who won’t hesitate to shoot a 3-pointer but also doesn’t mind driving and absorbing contact.
“We let her get into our heads a little bit,” Waldinger said. “Even when we were up four, we still couldn’t believe we could finish. We let them dictate the game to us.”
Despite the Blackhawks’ record, though, Waldinger counted 10 games they could have won this season and thinks they will be a tough out in the playoffs.
“We’re ready to go into the postseason with a strong finish,” Waldinger said.
The Wolves have a chance to win the conference title Tuesday with a win over Yorkville. That seemed a distant possibility at the start of the season, but they’re in that position now.
“Our Thanksgiving tournament didn’t go so well, but once we started playing conference games, we thought maybe we could win,” Lewandowski said. “If we beat them, we’ll win it.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
