Stephon Harris, nice to have you.
Oswego East missed the 6-foot-4 wing last year. Harris was ineligible after transferring from North Lawndale and the Wolves went 6-23 without him.
Harris’ debut, albeit delayed, was a smashing one — 25 points and the game-winning dunk to beat Neuqua Valley 62-61 in Monday’s Hoops for Healing Tournament opener for both teams at Naperville North.
“It’s been a whole year, year and a half actually,” said Harris, a junior who also had 13 rebounds. “I’m excited to get back with the team.”
Harris wasn’t the only one to see a wait end.
Oswego East, winless in the tournament the last four years, finally broke through in the eight-team event.
“The monkey is off our back a little bit,” Wolves coach Steve Szymanski said. “Especially that first game, to get off to a winning start is nice. I think the last couple years we’ve been 0-5, 0-6, 0-7. It’s nice to get that win. I know we have the players.”
Big, physical and hard to guard off the dribble, Harris is certainly one of them. He was at his best late.
He scored 13 of his points in the fourth quarter, a back-and-forth final eight minutes that featured six ties. Harris’ nifty crossover and three-point play put the Wolves ahead 56-54 with 2:25 left.
At the other end, Joe Sieger’s wide-open 3-pointer nudged Neuqua back ahead 57-56. The Wildcats, though, missed two free throws to pad their advantage. Harris made it hurt, taking a pass in the lane and throwing in a dunk to make it 58-57 with 1:02 left.
The Wolves led the rest of the way.
“It’s exciting to see him have a great game,” Szymanski said. “We told him before the season you need to be a double-double guy every game, and he obviously did that here. He does that, it will be hard to stop him.”
Neuqua finished 24-for-33 on free throws, but missed five straight in the final 1:13. Ryan Phillips’ 3-pointer as time expired provided the game’s final margin.
“It looked bad late, but 72 percent free throws, we’ll take it,” Neuqua coach Todd Sutton said. “It just looked bad missing those at the end.”
Trevor Ross added 17 points and Tahj Oliver had eight for Oswego East. Ross another tough player for Neuqua to handle on the drive.
Harris is Oswego East’s tallest player, and the Wolves were outsized at nearly every position. But their quickness gave Neuqua fits at both ends. Oswego East, which led 24-22 at half, shot 40 free throws.
“That was one of our keys, was to use our athleticism to our advantage,” Szymanski said. “We thought we could get to the rim.”
Sieger shook off a 1-for-10 first half to score 21 points, while Jacob Cushing had nine points and 11 rebounds for Neuqua.
Cushing’s 3-pointer, with 2:08 left in the third quarter, gave Neuqua its biggest lead at 37-31. Harris, though, promptly answered with his own three, and Neuqua clung to a 41-38 advantage going into the fourth quarter.
Andrew Clark added eight points and 11 rebounds and Alex Filo had eight points and eight rebounds for Neuqua.
Neuqua shot just 28.6 percent, but Sutton didn’t deem that the problem.
“We just couldn’t guard them,” Sutton said. “We couldn’t guard anybody. They went by all our guys. Sixty-one points is plenty to win a game.”
Joshua Welge is a freelance writer for The Beacon-News.
