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Big second half lifts Oak Glen

NEW MANCHESTER — After a slow first half, Oak Glen turned up the defense, shot lights out and raced away with a 71-57 win over John Marshall Thursday night inside the Oak Glen Fieldhouse. It was the regular season finale for both teams.

Both teams played mostly zone defense in the first half and neither had much success shooting from the outside. John Marshall wanted to collapse on Golden Bears senior all-state candidate Ethan Travis and Oak Glen was doing the same thing with the Monarch big man Bryce Yoho.

“We were just kind of standing around a lot in the first half,” said Oak Glen coach Jerry Everly, who was without starter Zach Taylor and sixth man Gage Patterson due to a suspension and injury. “The game slowed down to a crawl partly because we went zone and they pack it in on us. We were being a little patient. Probably too patient.”

John Marshall coach Chad Clutter admitted that Oak Glen played like a “well-oiled machine” in the second half.

“We know how to play for 16 minutes but we don’t know how to play for 32,” he said. “When the wheels fall off, they fall off. That’s what happened. I was a little disappointed on how that turned out. We definitely could have been in there with them. They showed why they won 16 games and I think they will be ready for North Marion on Tuesday.”

The win gives Oak Glen a 16-5 record going into the Region 1, Section 2 tournament play. It is the second most wins in Oak Glen history behind the 24-1 team of 2004 coached by now principal Dave Smith.

Travis played strong in the second half leading Oak Glen with 25 points and 12 rebounds, another of many double-doubles this year. He also had four blocked shots, an assist, hit two 3-pointers and was 5 of 5 from the foul line.

“We played defense better,” Travis said explaining what changed after halftime. “The first half it was really tough inside because they are a big, physical team. The referees let us play and I like it that way. It’s more fun.”

The Golden Bears wound up with three other players in double figures. Wyatt Wiley and Sean Smith each scored 14 points and Jarrett Gittings added 11. Yoho, who battled Travis inside, was the only double figure scorer for the Monarchs finishing with 15 points.

Travis gave Oak Glen its only lead of the first half scoring a layup off of a nifty Wiley feed, but John Marshall’s Tyler Sadoski answered with a 3-pointer and the Monarchs led the rest of the first half. They took a 25-20 lead into the break.

It was a complete turnaround for the Golden Bears as they went on a 10-4 run to open the third quarter. A Travis offensive rebound and putback gave the Golden Bears the lead at 30-29 with 5:19 left in the period, a lead they never relinquished the rest of the game.

Oak Glen had trouble making some wide open 3-pointers in the first half, but they were deadly in the second, hitting 6 of 10 goals they had from behind the arc.

“About the only thing we changed at halftime was going to a three-quarter court press in the second half,” said Everly, whose team will go into the sectional tournament as the 2 seed behind Fairmont Senior, the No. 2 ranked team in Class AA. “I think that slowed them down some. It is something we haven’t done that much this year. And then offensively, we just made plays. We’re a good team. We can play and we can shoot. We have confidence that when we step into a shot we can shoot real well and that’s what we did in the second half.

“What we said at halftime was that there is no magical play here. Let’s just step into your shot and have confidence. It was good to see that in the second half because we played two very good teams in St. Clairsville and East Liverpool and they got us out of what we wanted to do. It was good to get back to where we need to be.”

GAME NOTES

¯ The Oak Glen reserves made it a sweep with a 43-39 win over the Monarchs. Caleb Dailey led Oak Glen with 15 points.

Oak Glen 71, John Marshall 57

John Marshall 13-12-8-24 — 57

Oak Glen 10-10-23-28 — 71

JOHN MARSHALL (7-14): Derrow 3 0-2 9, Reid 1 0-0 3, Miller 0 3-4 3, Yoho 7 1-2 15, Campbell 2 0-0 4, Norris 1 2-2 4, Sadoski 4 0-0 9, Bishop 1 0-0 3, Reilly 3 0-1 7. TOTALS: 22 6-11 57. 3-POINT GOALS: 4 (Reid, Sadoski, Bishop, Reilly); REBOUNDS: 24 (Derrow, Norris 5 each); TURNOVERS: 11.

OAK GLEN (16-5): Wiley 4 3-4 14, Perez 2 1-4 5, Smith 4 2-4 14, Aloria 0 0-0 0, Gittings 4 0-0 11, Travis 9 5-5 25, Staub 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 24 11-17 71. 3-POINT GOALS: 10 (Gittings 3, Wiley 3, Smith 2, Travis 2); REBOUNDS: 29 (Travis 12); TURNOVERS: 7.

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