Desiree Merritt leads Oswego East past Oswego
Oswego East’s Desiree Merritt played alongside two of the program’s all-time greats during her four varsity seasons, meaning she was never the star player for the Wolves.
Her current teammate, Aubrey Lamberti, is the program’s all-time leading scorer, while Maggie Lewandowski sits in third place. Yet here comes Merritt, Oswego East’s version of Scottie Pippen, with a chance to overtake Lewandowski and finish second behind Lamberti when all is said and done.
The lack of recognition doesn’t bother the high guard either.
“I never really think about it,” Merritt said. “I’m just going to go out there and hoop whatever. We had Maggie, who did great things. Aubrey is the best scorer.
“I’m just here to play. I’m glad I had teammates like that to set the standard.”
Merritt’s time at Oswego East is coming to an end before heading to Joliet St. Francis, but she delivered another standout moment Tuesday night with a game-high 24 points for the Wolves in a 54-25 Southwest Prairie West win over crosstown rival Oswego.
She scored 17 of Oswego East’s 18 points in the second quarter and finished with 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocked shots for the Wolves (16-10, 9-4).
Lamberti also did well with 10 points for Oswego East. Destiny Hicks led Oswego (13-17, 4-10) with six points, while Peyton Johnson added nine rebounds and six steals.
Merritt, meanwhile, followed a rare scoreless streak in the first quarter by scoring three straight points in the second quarter – and that was the start of the game.
“It’s crazy, I’ve never done anything like this,” Merritt said. “With the help of my teammates, obviously, I managed it. They were giving me the ball.
“I definitely knew I was hot after the second shot I took.”
Oswego East coach Abe Carretto has seen it many times from Merritt before.
“Eventually she started hitting outside jumpers and she kept hitting them, which was good,” Carretto said of Merritt. “As soon as she hit two in a row, I was like, ‘OK, she’s feeling it.'”
Former Oswego East star Venita Parsons is now Oswego’s coach. She coached Merritt in seventh grade and saw this coming.
“I knew she was going to be a stud,” Parsons said. “Her work ethic is great. She gets her teammates involved. She takes opportunities when she gets them. When you have a girl like that, who is going to take over and put a team on her back, you have to be able to stop her.
“If you can’t stop her and she gets hot, it’s only going to get worse throughout the game.”
After her three-pointer broke the ice, Merritt did what she does best by scoring in a variety of ways.
She hit a mid-range jumper, nailed a runner in the lane, hit three more, converted a fadeaway in the lane and sank on two free throws. At that point, the Wolves led 26-13.
Carretto realizes that Lamberti and Lewandowski may have garnered more headlines, but he knows how respected Merritt is by his colleagues.
“She doesn’t get left behind because other coaches tell me how athletic and fantastic she is when she goes out there like that,” Carretto said. “Personally, I think when you talk about the star of the team, we had a lot of them.
“She, Maggie and Aubrey are so close in everything they’ve done that there’s no way to identify the star.”
Still, Merritt is hoping for a few more turns in the spotlight next week at the regional. After Oswego East’s upset win last weekend against Naperville Central, Merritt and Co. are confident.
“If that doesn’t show us that we’re a high-caliber team, I don’t know what will,” Merritt said. “We played hard.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
