Published: February 10, 2008 12:04 am            

No. 2 Oak Hill overwhelms Taylor

Titans close with 14-9 record; lose just one senior

CONVERSE — The Taylor Lady Titans picked a bad time to have their worst shooting night of the season.

Facing the undefeated and No. 2-ranked Oak Hill Golden Eagles in the Class 2A Oak Hill Sectional championship here Saturday night, the Titans hit only 13 of 51 shots, a frigid 25 percent. That wasn’t nearly good enough to threaten the Eagles, who took control of the game midway through the opening quarter and cruised to a 65-37 win.

Playing without 6-foot-1 sophomore center Kaitlynne Smith, who was out due to illness, Taylor simply couldn’t stop the taller Eagles. The result was a 43-25 rebounding advantage, including 17 Oak Hill offensive boards.

The inside-outside combination of 6-4 center Ashley Pickering and outstanding Courtney Moses led the way for Oak Hill, which improved to 23-0. Moses posted 20 points and seven assists while Pickering canned 18 points and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds.

Taylor coach Dennis Bentzler knew his team would not be able to stop Oak Hill’s outstanding duo of sophomores, but he hoped his team would be able to score with the Eagles and stay close.

“[Oak Hill] is not ranked No. 2 for nothing,” said Bentzler. “We knew we were going to have to hit shots. Early I thought we were going to be OK. We were going to give them [outside] shots; we just wanted to contain the basketball and keep Moses from penetrating and keep Pickering from just running wild in the paint. For a while we did a great job.”

The Titans (14-9) started well, leading 10-8 three minutes into the contest. But the Eagles warmed up as Pickering had a personal 6-0 run, four of those points coming off offensive rebounds. Kylie Weeks nailed her second 3-pointer at the 3:53 mark to trim Oak Hill’s lead to 14-13 — but Taylor went ice cold and did not score again for almost eight minutes.

Teri Oliver notched a jumper off a Shelby Wall assist midway through the second stanza to end the drought. In the meantime, Oak Hill had gone on an 11-0 run and led 25-15. After Oliver’s basket, the Eagles struck for six unanswered points and held a comfortable 33-18 advantage at halftime.

Oak Hill removed all doubt about the outcome of the game in the third quarter. After connecting on just 3 of 14 from behind the arc in the first half, the Golden Eagles notched 5 of 9 in the second, including three treys in the third quarter when they outscored Taylor 18-4 to take a 51-22 lead to the fourth.

Both teams emptied their benches in the final period as Oak Hill coasted to the victory.

Teri Oliver led the Titans with a double-double, scoring a game-high 22 points and grabbing 10 boards. Weeks added eight points and Wall had five.

Despite the loss, Bentzler praised his club’s effort and credited Taylor Allen, the squad’s lone senior.

“Taylor Allen had a great year, our senior speaking captain,” he said. “She came from three years on the junior varsity to a starter on the varsity. She scored 100-plus points [this season] and just gave us great minutes all year and great leadership.

“We’ve got everybody else back [next season],” he added, “and we’ve got some tremendous eighth grade talent. I fully expect us to be better next year. I told our kids we’ve been to six straight [sectional] championship games. We’ve won three and we’ve got three runner-up balls. I’m tired of having runner-up balls in my office, so we’re going to be on a mission. We’re going to be deeper, more athletic and more skilled. We’ll be back here with a vengeance next year.”

        

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