Murfreesboro Post
MURFREESBORO WEATHER

Oakland, Christiana split in middle school basketball




Oakland, Christiana split in middle school basketball

Oakland Middle and Christiana Middle opened district basketball play Monday night, and the teams split as the visiting Lady Chargers defeated the Lady Cougars 43-24, and the Cougars won 51-39 win over the Chargers.

In the girls game, Christiana came out strong and held an 11-2 lead with under a minute left in the first on big 3-pointers from Annabelle Marlin and a tight full-court press.

“We had to battle adversity,” Oakland girls coach Brett Wolfe said. “They came out with a press we hadn’t seen and we had to adjust a little.”

That was where Christiana peaked as Oakland mounted the comeback trail and took a 17-14 halftime lead. Myah Sutton had seven of Oakland’s points down that stretch.

The Lady Chargers flipped the script defensively, running their own press and allowing the team to control the tempo and utilized their size in the paint, namely Amelia Keating, who led all scorers with 15 points on the night.

“Our bigs ran the floor good and were able to get a post and finish layups,” Wolfe said. “Amelia was big for us as she always is. She had some huge and-ones so she did good battling contact.”

The Lady Chargers exponentially increased their lead throughout the second half, outscoring the Lady Cougars 26-10 to finish with the 43-24 final.

In boys action, it was a similar tale with the roles reversed. Oakland jumped to a 14-4 lead after one period on the shoulders of the game’s high scorer Jerrell Franklin, who had eight in the first and 17 on the night.

The Cougars turned to Kade Hewitt to stop Franklin, and his high intensity play not only shut Franklin down in the second but sparked his team on both sides of the ball as they climbed back into the game.

“We noticed the refs weren’t calling many fouls so we worked with them,” Hewitt said. “We started to play more physical and they put me on (Franklin) and I just tried to keep the ball out of his hands.”

Christiana’s 8-0 run to start the second tied the game at 14 on a huge Hewitt three pointer, but Oakland still carried an 18-16 lead at halftime.

Hewitt continued to lead a highly physical defense for the Cougars forcing 25 turnovers in the final three periods of the game, and they finally took the lead 23-22 with 3:30 left in the third.

At this time the Christiana offense began to take form and open up the outside shot as Daniel Martin and Andrew Myers scored six points each in a 19-point third period.

“We were able to get the ball moving and break their zone,” Hewitt said. “When you do that you open up shots and we are a good shooting team.”

The Cougars continued to expand the lead through the fourth as Hewitt and William Bohannon teamed up for 13 combined in the period en route to the 51-39 win. Meyers and Hewitt finished with 13 apiece and Bohannon turned in a solid 12.

Leave a Reply