Published: January 10, 2009 11:39 pm      

Peru’s winning streak comes to end

Oak Hill beats Peru in battle of Top 10 teams

CONVERSE — What turned out to be a cold and icy day outside also turned into a cold and icy day for Class 3A No. 7-ranked Peru as the Bengal Tigers had their five-game winning streak snapped by the Class 2A No. 5-ranked Oak Hill Golden Eagles here Saturday night.

Peru, which defeated Kokomo 58-37 Friday, lost to Oak Hill 59-53. The Golden Eagles (9-2) snapped a two-game losing streak in the process.

The Tigers might have emptied their tanks Friday night.

“Apparently, [we went] 11-23 from the free throw line, and that didn’t help,” said Peru coach Eric Thompson on the team losing its legs. “We had 10 turnovers in the first half and only one in the second half. It was a good test for us. We were physically ready, and mentally we allowed the game to think that we were more fatigued then we were.

“We just weren’t ready to play. We might have been [celebrating] from Friday night before. I give credit to Oak Hill and their coaching staff. They did a real good job, and good luck to them the rest of the year.”

Peru was in trouble from the start as Oak Hill jumped to an 8-2 lead. Jared Perkins scored five of the Golden Eagles’ first eight points. Taylor Smith scored Peru’s two points in with 5:40 left in the first quarter. The Tigers ended the first quarter on a 7-6 run for a 14-9 deficit at the break.

After a 3-pointer by Peru’s Danny Comerford at the start of the second quarter, Oak Hill went on a 10-2 run for a 24-14 lead with three minutes left in the first half. Oak Hill led 32-22 at halftime.

The Tigers came back in the third quarter as they outscored Oak Hill 13-8 in the third. Engel led the charge with five points, and Luke Primerano and Terry Smith each had four points in the quarter.

But Oak Hill took control in the fourth quarter, going 9 of 12 from the free throw line.

Overall, Peru shot 20 of 48 from the field, including 2 of 14 from 3-point range, and it was 11 of 21 from the line. Oak Hill was 20 of 32 from the field, including 3 of 6 from the 3-point arc, and it was 16 of 21 from the free throw line.

Thompson did add that the team needs to start getting ready for back-to-back nights with sectionals starting up in February.

“To win the sectional, you have to beat teams like this, and we didn’t,” he said. “We need to learn from this, and go from there. We did a great job learning from Plymouth and we come in here Saturday, and we will learn from our mistakes.”

Terry Smith led Peru with 18 points, followed by Engel with 12. Oak Hill was led by Perkins with 22 points.

Peru (8-2) hosts Maconaquah Friday.