Oak Glen’s speed overpowers Brooke
Enochs, Greenlief, Brown combine for 50 points during Bears’ victory
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NEW MANCHESTER -- For as small as the Oak Glen girls basketball team is in terms of size, it makes up for it with speed.
Against a bigger squad like Brooke on Wednesday, that tempo overshadowed the Bruins' size, namely with their two forwards who combined for 31 rebounds.
The Golden Bears forced 32 turnovers, only grabbed six less rebounds and nailed eight 3-pointers during their 69-50 victory.
"We were nervous about the size that they have. It's tough to defend sometimes," Oak Glen head coach Scott Wiley said. "I know our girls work as hard as they can, but sometimes there isn't much you can do about the size.
"We tried to get as much pressure on them as much as we could. Sitting in a zone doesn't work for us. We have to get out and run and see what happens."
Another factor was spreading the ball to different shooters. All but one of the nine Bears (4-4) that played scored at least two points.
For Brooke (0-7), two players combined for 44 points (Madison Platt dropped a career-high 30), but the other eight only tallied six overall.
"They're very small but very fast, and we continue to struggle with the press," Bruin head coach Amy Serevicz said. "They were hands on. Until we learn to work together on the press, we're going to continue to lose.
"We weren't feeding the ball to our bigs. We weren't taking advantage of the size underneath."
Out of the eight Oak Glen players who scored, three had 16 or more. That charge was led by Alexus Greenlief, who finished with 17 points (7 for 11 at the foul line) and 11 rebounds.
Sarah Brown, who participated in the jayvee contest, also dropped 17 (14 in the first half and five 3-pointers overall) and grabbed five boards off the bench.
"That's what we want to see out of her. We know she's capable of doing that," Wiley said. "We thought having her play in the JV game would help loosen her up. It seemed to work out. To get a compliment to Reece (Enochs) helps out to spread their zone."
Enochs compiled 16 points, six assists and multiple steals.
Also for the Bears, Alayna Kranis had seven points and four rebounds. Carson Barr added six points and eight boards off the bench.
For the Bruins, Bolen collected a career-high 20 rebounds to go along with 14 points. Bailey Serevicz, the other forward, had 11 boards and five assists. Platt grabbed five rebounds. Angelina Lippoli chipped in four points, five rebounds and four assists.
"We have to keep working on our press breakers, sharing the ball more and all of the little things like that," coach Serevicz said. "We have to close out. Fundamental stuff we're not doing. We started off good, but we progressively started getting tired."
Brooke hauled down 48 rebounds as a team, which is not surprising. Oak Glen, though, had 42, including 28 on the offensive side. At one point early in the fourth quarter, it pulled down five straight offensive boards.
"Shooting those long shots, you're going to get long rebounds. The girls were going after them. We preach to them to get in front of their players," Wiley said.
BREAKING THE CHAIN
Wednesday marked the second of two straight contests for Oak Glen since coming out of quarantine (defeated Madonna on Tuesday). Today will mark three consecutive home games, so it does not have much time to rest.
However, getting a break it did not ask for may in turn have been a blessing in disguise.
"So far it's worked out with two wins," Wiley said. "A lot of them are going to basketball, track and/or softball practice in the same day. As a coach, you were upset about it, but maybe there was an advantage to it. Maybe they were able to refocus and saw that their season could be taken away."
JV ACTION
Oak Glen also won the jayvee contest, 44-14. Ashlyn Six led the Bears with 10 points, while a pair of Bruins had three apiece.
UP NEXT
Brooke: Tentatively travels to Linsly today.
Oak Glen: Tentatively hosts Wheeling Central today as part of senior night.
Oak Glen 69, Brooke 50
Brooke 7 12 15 16 -- 50
Oak Glen 16 19 21 13 -- 69
BROOKE (0-7): Platt 12 3-3 30; Lippoli 2 0-0 5; Orban 0 0-0 0; Serevicz 1 0-0 2; Bolen 6 2-6 14; Buterbaugh 0 0-0 0; Huntzinger 0 0-1 0; Schwertfeger 0 0-0 0; Neff 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21, 5-10: 50.
OAK GLEN (4-4): Enochs 6 1-2 16; Kranis 3 1-1 7; McKay 1 0-0 2; Sy. Brown 0 0-0 0; Greenlief 5 7-11 17; McNutt 1 0-0 2; Sa. Brown 6 0-0 17; Barr 3 0-0 6; Kell 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 26, 9-14: 69.
3-POINT GOALS: Brooke 3 (Platt 3); Oak Glen 8 (Enochs 3, Sa. Brown 5). REBOUNDS: Brooke 48 (Bolen 20, Serevicz 11); Oak Glen 42 (Kranis 11, Greenlief 11). ASSISTS: Brooke 13 (Serevicz 5); Oak Glen 15 (Enochs 6). TURNOVERS: Brooke 32; Oak Glen 9.