Balanced scoring leads Oak Glen past St. C, into OVAC Championship
Eight different Golden Bears contribute in 67-57 win in Class 4A semifinal
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NEW MANCHESTER -- Competing for an OVAC title is nothing new to most of Oak Glen's girls basketball roster, as the majority of them have done so on the softball diamond, the soccer field or the volleyball court.
This season, thanks to a 67-57 victory over St. Clairsville in Monday's Class 4A semifinal on their home court, the Golden Bears will compete for one on the basketball hardwood.
"It is one of our goals we set at the beginning of the season," Oak Glen head coach Scott Wiley said. "Everyone in the area wants to be in that top-4 to get in the tournament, and then once you get there, you want to win a game, then you want to win another one.
"It means a lot to the girls, they've been to the OVAC final in the other sports. It's nice for them to be able to do it in girls basketball this time."
All eight players to see the floor for Wiley's club, which improved to 9-5 on the season with the win, contributed at least four points.
Leading that charge was Carson Barr with team-highs in points (15) and rebounds (10) for a double-double, while Alexus Greenlief contributed 13 points, Maddie McKay had a solid, all-around night with nine points, four assists and six rebounds and Sarah Brown knocked down three triples for nine points.
"We don't tell anyone not to shoot," Wiley said. "They have the green light to take a shot whenever they can. They share the ball, it's not like we have one player that is going to take all the shots, they pass it around nicely."
After No. 2 seed Oak Glen opened an 8-2 lead to start the game, the No. 3 seed Red Devils (9-8) stormed back to lead 15-14 after one quarter.
The Bears, however, rattled off a 9-0 run to start the second, kicked off by a McKay old-fashioned three-point play, then a Brown triple pushed the lead to eight before Oak Glen led 32-25 at the break.
"We've got a mature group, even though we only have one senior," Wiley said. "Our juniors have a lot of varsity playing time and that helps. We live and die by running. If we're going to go down, we're going to go down going as hard as we can.
"We had a lead there at the beginning, and unfortunately we gave it back up. Just some silly turnovers and stuff like that, but they just stuck together. It was all about eight players not being selfish and just playing together."
Brown again extended the lead with an early triple in the third, and the Bears led by seven at 47-40 after three.
Oak Glen led by as many as 12 in the fourth, as they went to the line in double bonus and made key free throws to maintain the lead down the stretch.
"St. Clairsville is always tough," Wiley said. "Coach (Stacey) Agnew's teams are always physical and they are not going to quit. We knew they weren't going to quit and we knew it was going to be a dogfight the whole time. We were hoping our running was going to help us, and I think it did."
The Red Devils, after that initial lead, simply didn't have enough counters to the Golden Bears runs.
"Their foot speed was the difference in the game," Agnew said. "Sometimes a team is just quicker than you, and they were quicker than us, got the loose balls and made buckets. We cut it to seven at one point, then they went on another spurt and we just couldn't catch up.
"Oak Glen has a nice team, they play hard. I don't know if we were too excited or what, but we missed four or five bunnies early and that comes back to bit you later, especially against a good team like this when you're on the road."
Leading St. Clairsville was Megan Malin with a game-high 17 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. She was one of four Red Devils to reach double figures as Alexis Thoburn (15 points), Shae Brookover (13 points) and Sydney Miller (10 points) each accomplished the feat in the loss.
With the win, Oak Glen will take on top seed Union Local in Saturday's OVAC Class 4A final at 4 p.m. at Harrison Central.
The Jets defeated the No. 4 seed Huskies in the other semifinal, 56-20, on Monday night. The Red Devils and Huskies will play in the third-place consolation game on Thursday.
OVAC Class 4A Semifinal
No. 2 Oak Glen 67, No. 3 St. Clairsville 57
St. Clairsville 15-10-15-17 - 57
Oak Glen 14-18-15-20 - 67
ST. CLAIRSVILLE (9-8): Thoburn 6 2-2 15; Brookover 6 0-1 13; Malin 6 5-7 17; Miller 4 0-0 10; Gray 0 0-0 0; Tuttle 1 0-0 2; Sadler 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 23, 7-10; 57.
OAK GLEN (9-5): Kell 1 2-2 5; Greenlief 2 9-10 13; McKay 4 1-1 9; Barr 4 7-8 15; Sa. Brown 3 0-0 9; Six 3 0-0 6; Sy. Brown 3 0-1 6; Ward 1 2-4 4. TOTALS: 21, 21-26; 67.
3-POINT GOALS: St. Clairsville 4 (Miller 2, Thoburn, Brookover); Oak Glen 4 (Sa. Brown 3, Kell). ASSISTS: St. Clairsville 18 (Malin 6); Oak Glen 17 (Ward 5). REBOUNDS: St. Clairsville 29 (Malin 12); Oak Glen 33 (Barr 10). TURNOVERS: St. Clairsville 14; Oak Glen 12.