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Oak Glen shakes off rust, defeats Brooke

COLLECTING — Oak Glen’s Zach Taylor collects the loose ball while Brooke’s Logan Williams, left, and Aleksey Racz chase on Tuesday. (Photo by Joe Catullo)

NEW MANCHESTER — After a week off, the Oak Glen boys basketball team looked a little out of sync in its second game of the year against Brooke on Tuesday.

Luckily for the Golden Bears, their rival is still learning and improving under first-year head coach Mel Coleman. Despite a slow start and numerous fouls (there were 60 free throw attempts between both teams), Oak Glen grabbed a 73-54 victory.

“We were rusty and struggled,” Oak Glen head coach Jerry Everly said. “We weren’t clicking, but I give Brooke a lot of credit. They were physical, and we knew they would be. They played hard and got after it. We responded in spurts, but we can play better.

“I think our guys just got caught up in trying to do there own thing instead of staying with what we want to do. We can fix that. We just have to stay within ourselves.”

The Golden Bears (2-0) shook off that rust with a 28-point second quarter and led 43-31 at halftime. Coleman believes the game was won and lost early in the opening frame, as the Bruins (0-3) committed seven turnovers in the first three minutes. They tallied 28 overall.

“One of our goals is to not turn the ball over 28 times,” he said. “That’s 28 times we didn’t take a shot. We lost by 19 — there it is. We can’t turn the ball over. We beat ourselves.”

Ethan Travis led the Golden Bears with a game-high 23 points. Jarrett Gittings finished behind him with 22.

“Jarrett shot real well for us. It’s good to see that. He played well defensively, too,” Everly said.

Sean Smith recorded 10 points for Oak Glen, while Blake Perez added eight.

For Brooke, Aleksy Racz, Gage Yost, Andrew Coursin and Jimmy Willis finished with 10 points apiece.

“We are definitely improving. We are going to be better,” Coleman said.

The Golden Bears face Linsly on Friday at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling. Brooke hosts Parkersburg South in its home opener on Tuesday.

Oak Glen 73, Brooke 54

Brooke 12-18-11-12 — 54

Oak Glen 15-28-14-16 — 73

BROOKE (0-3): Brown 0 0-2 0; Pannett 0 0-0 0; Williams 1 2-2 5; Buchmelter 0 0-0 0; Racz 3 4-6 10; Lilly 1 5-6 7; Silver 1 0-0 2; Yost 5 0-0 10; Coursin 2 6-10 10; Willis 5 0-0 10. TOTALS: 18, 17-26: 54.

OAK GLEN (2-0): Wiley 1 2-2 4; Perez 4 0-0 8; Smith 2 6-8 10; Patterson 0 0-0 0; Gittings 7 4-6 22, Travis 7 8-14 23; Clark 1 0-0 2; Taylor 1 2-4 4; Mineard 0 0-0 0; Staub 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 23, 22-34: 73.

3-POINT GOALS: Brooke 1 (Williams); Oak Glen 5 (Gittings 4, Travis).

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