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NEW MANCHESTER -- Down 15 points a minute into the second quarter and never in the lead until late in the fourth, Wheeling Central made the most of Oak Glen's mistakes to escape with a 55-54 victory Thursday night in the Oak Glen Fieldhouse.
The Golden Bears were ahead by 10 at the half and by seven going into the last period, but found shooting the basketball a little more difficult going down the stretch because of a furious Maroon Knight pressure defense. That defense created 13 fourth quarter turnovers by the Golden Bears, the costliest one being a steal by Central's Ryan Reasbeck. Reasbeck made one of two free throws with 15 seconds on the clock to pull the Maroon Knights within two points at 54-52.
Then, he swiped the inbound pass, dribbled to the basket and was fouled as he made a layup that tied the game. Reasbeck, a sophomore, who finished with 16 points, calmly went to the line and made the game-winning foul shot.
The Golden Bears were able to get a desperation shot off at the buzzer, but it bounced off of the backboard.
"Oak Glen was really ready to go and the Taylor kid (Zach Taylor) had an unbelievable game," said veteran Wheeling Central coach Mel Stephens, whose club now is 5-1. "We knew he was good. I had seen them play twice. I knew they were a good team, but Taylor really played well. They shot the ball. When you're at home, you should, but we didn't play our best. Down the stretch we were able to make enough plays to come out with the win."
Taylor was on fire in the first half scoring 16 points, which was almost half of the 35 the Golden Bears scored. Taylor finished with a game high 26 points and six rebounds. After Wheeling Central took the lead at 51-48 on a jumper by junior J.C. Maxwell, it was a Taylor three ball that tied it the game with 2:40 left.
Junior Jacob Clark made a free throw and Taylor got a layup off an inbound pass to put the Golden Bears up 54-51 with 37 seconds remaining. There were several turnovers by both teams until Reasbeck's heroics in the final 15 seconds.
"Wheeling Central is a good team," said Oak Glen coach Jerry Everly. "You're not going to blow them out. They are an excellent team. They have proved that by the teams they've beaten this year.
"For us to do that, I'm proud of the way we played. I'm not going to think about what went wrong. I'm going to think about what went right and how good we played. We scored 24 points in that first quarter and doing everything we wanted to do. In the second quarter we let them make a little run. They're not going to just fold in. They made a run at us and came back.
"But I thought we responded to that. They made a run at us and we came right back and made a run at them. We had the ball and up three with 15 seconds left. That's where you want to be. We just didn't make smart decisions in the end. We'll work on that and get better at it. We'll grow from this.
"I told the kids when you want to play a team like this you want to accept the challenge and learn from it. I think we did. I think we learned we're a pretty darned good basketball team. We can play with these teams."
With his outside shooting not working, Stephens turned to 6-foot-5-inch senior Clayton Abate, who was able to score 24 points working in the paint. His game high 10 rebounds gave him a double-double.
Taylor, who hit four three-pointers, was the only Golden Bear in double figures. Junior Jacob Clark scored nine and Gage Patterson and Blake Perez each scored seven. The Bears were only 5 of 11 from the foul line and ended up with 22 turnovers.
GAME NOTES
The Wheeling Central reserve team made it a sweep with a 49-31 win over the Golden Bear cubs. Tristen Nemeth scored 9 points for the Maroon Knights and Oak Glen freshman, Tristen McCauley, led all scorers with 10.
UP NEXT
Oak Glen returns to the floor Saturday in the nightcap of a big Golden Bear alumni day. They host Wellsville at about 7:30 p.m. The Golden Bear varsity girls basketball team will entertain Wellsville at 6 p.m.
The Maroon Knights will play Butler, Pa., Saturday morning in the CRC Shootout in Wheeling.
Wheeling Central 55, Oak Glen 54
Wheeling Central 15 10 12 18 55
Oak Glen 24 11 9 10 54
WHEELING CENTRAL (6-1): Lee 1 0-0 3; Reasbeck 5 5-9 16; Maxwell 3 2-2 8; Creighton 2 0-0 4; Abate 12 0-0 24. TOTALS: 23 7-11 55. Three-pointers:2 (Lee, Reasbeck); Rebounds 25 (Abate 10); Turnovers 13.
OAK GLEN (3-4): Patterson 3 0-0 7; Perez 3 1-2 7; Taylor 11 0-0 26; Clark 4 1-2 9; Mineard 1 1-5 3; Howard 0 2-2 2. TOTALS: 22 5-11 54. Three-pointers: 5 (Taylor 4, Patterson); Rebounds: 24 (Taylor 6); Turnovers: 22.