Oswego East’s Jehvion Starwood steps up with winning 3-pointer in OT. His earlier misses? ‘One was an air ball.’

Time was on Jehvion Starwood’s side, just not a lot of it.

Not to worry.

The 6-foot-3 junior guard is the only starter who’s not a senior for Oswego East, but he still stepped up like a seasoned veteran during crunchtime Wednesday night.

“He was three feet behind the 3-point line,” Wolves coach Ryan Velasquez said. “But Jehvion is very capable of making that shot. We were really fortunate to get a clean look at that point in the game.”

Starwood made the most of it, calmly sinking the uncontested shot from the top of the key with 2.9 seconds remaining in overtime for a tense 62-61 victory.

The big win in the Class 4A Bolingbrook Sectional semifinals over the host Raiders wasn’t sealed, however, until a last-second 3-pointer from regulation hero Aries Hull fell short of the rim.

Hull, a 6-8 senior forward, made a pair of free throws for his first points of the game with 0.2 of a second left to force a 57-57 tie.

Starwood’s shot, though, sends Oswego East (28-5) to a 7 p.m. Friday tipoff against Joliet West (29-5) for the sectional title.

Bolingbrook (24-8) defeated the Wolves in two overtimes during last season’s sectional final and also won 56-53 during the regular season on Jan. 11 at home.

Two nights later, Oswego East traveled to Joliet West and won 72-59.

“We’ve been in this position before,” Velasquez said. “We just have to take a deep breath, value possessions and concentrate on getting stops.

“These kids, especially our seniors, have been through it.”

Starwood, a reserve last winter for Yorkville Christian’s Class 1A state championship team, transferring to Oswego East in the offseason. He hadn’t been.

But he also wasn’t surprised to find himself open on the decisive play since he had shot 4 of 13 in regulation, including misses on all four 3-pointers he took.

“It was the only one of those shots I made all day,” Starwood said. “One was an air ball, so I wasn’t surprised it wasn’t contested. I was supposed to go left on the play off a screen, but they sat in that 2-3 zone.”

Starwood, who finished with 14 points, called the Raiders’ bluff by sinking the shot. An earlier basket meant he accounted for all five of Wolves’ points in the extra session.

Ryan Johnson led the Wolves with 20 points but fouled out early in the overtime.

Towson recruit Mekhi Lowery grabbed a rebound and made a shot falling backward to the floor with 10.6 seconds left in regulation, setting the stage for Hull’s free throws.

“I was thinking we can’t lose this,” said Lowery, who finished with just 10 points but added six rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots.

Bolingbrook was led by senior guard Mekhi Cooper. The Toledo recruit scored 23 points.

“I looked up at the board and saw he had 23, but it seemed like he had 35,” Velasquez said. “He’s a really good player. We had our hands full with the challenge of trying to stop him.”

Starwood, who helped slow down Cooper some in the second half, said the goal was simple.

“He’s always been a great shooter and is a great all-around player,” Starwood said. “We wanted to deny and let somebody else try to beat us.”

After Bolingbrook missed a one-and-one free throw with 19 seconds left in OT, Starwood set up his decisive play by tapping the rebound to Tyler Jasek.

“We didn’t have any timeouts and weren’t sure what they were going to be in defensively,” Velasquez said. “It’s one of those things we refer to as situational basketball.”

Turns out it was made to order for Starwood.