Red Devils crank it up late, dispatch Warriors

Feb. 2—QUINCY — Oak Hill ventured out on the road and got a nice rebound win Tuesday night.

On the heels of a tough overtime loss to rival Woodrow Wilson on Jan. 27, the Red Devils overcame a sluggish start and came to life in the game's latter stages to post a 61-38 victory over the Riverside Warriors.

Owning a 22-17 lead at halftime, the Red Devils made a defensive change as the second half progressed which allowed them to begin getting fast break points and putting Riverside deeper in a hole.

In the third period, Oak Hill's Ethan Vargo-Thomas converted a two-pointer in the lane for a 38-27 lead, then Trevor Kelley stole the ball and scored at the other end for a 40-28 Red Devil advantage as the quarter closed out.

The Red Devils maintained the pressure in the fourth, with the lead eventually reaching 26 points before settling into a final 23-point margin. A 3-pointer by Malachi Lewis and a deuce by Kelley in transition resulted in a 47-28 Oak Hill bulge and a Riverside timeout at the 6:36 mark of the fourth.

"I didn't think we started off great," Oak Hill head coach Benitez Jackson said. "We were flat in the first half. Our offense was stagnant. We weren't taking very good shots.

"But in the second half, we got out there and we pressured a little bit and we, I thought, got out in transition. We got out in front a little bit and we got some turnovers ... We got out in transition and got some baskets which helped."

"First of all, this (Oak Hill) is a very good team; a good team that knows how to run, can shoot with several people there," said Riverside head coach Jonathan Woods. "A couple guards who really know how to attack. And some of the difference was, in the first half, we got a couple guys in foul trouble that were some of their key players and when we had them in foul trouble, that kept things slowed down and a couple guys had to fill a role that they weren't particularly used to filling so that allowed us, really, to stay in that."

"Then in the third quarter, I thought we did a really nice job of containing and holding on some of that and keeping people contained on the fast break," he continued. "In the fourth quarter there, when they switched into that zone, they made a couple nice plays out of that zone. They got a couple long rebounds out of that zone and got some runouts on it and that gave them some easy transition points."

Kelley finished with 24 points, including 17 in a productive final two quarters, to pace the Oak Hill attack. Lewis chipped in 16.

Braydin Ward netted 12 points for the Warriors, including a thunderous dunk to begin the team's scoring late in the first quarter.

Jackson was pleased with his team's defensive efforts. "... with (Riverside's Braydin) Ward, the big kid, he's a load down there for us, but I thought we did a really good job; Trevor Kelley did a really good job defensively on them in the middle of the zone and I thought our guards really pressured the ball," said Jackson. "I thought Cole Legg coming off the bench for us really created some turnovers for us and I thought Omar (Lewis supplied good defense, as well). I thought the second half was pretty good, the third quarter and the fourth quarter I thought we were really good in transition. We got out and made some shots so I'm happy about that."

Part of the game plan was to move Kelley away from the paint, the coach said. "We talked about it. We kept talking about it yesterday. We had to keep looking at (Kelley) away from the basket. We were worried about the matchup on defense, but in the third quarter we just thought we had to go ahead and do it so (especially when starter Jerimiah Jackson experienced foul trouble).

"We were just kinda standing there under the basket so we wanted to go smaller and get out from under the basket and I thought that was indicative and we were able to spread the floor a little bit."

Woods says his team has made progress this season. "You know, this team has been hit hard this year," he said. "People don't realize this, but we've probably only played three or four games with the exact same lineup all year. We have had guys that have been in and out injury-wise. We've had one player that didn't get to play half the season. We have a couple others that had some knee injuries, some leg injuries, stuff like that where, cohesion-wise, we haven't been there all the time.

"We had one player with a foot injury that missed three games, so if we had been at our full strength and doing what we need to do, we'd have been a tough team to play. I think we showed that tonight where we're right there. A couple made shots a little difference here and there and every game's different for us. You know, we played the other night against Capital where we had them at a 5- to 10-point game and we missed a couple shots, I think they extended to 12 to 14 and we had to foul to try to bring it back and that's what extended that game at the end, but again, we were right like this situation where we were right in it until the very end."

In the jayvee contest, Oak Hill logged a 54-38 verdict, led by 13 points from Brent Conley and 10 points from Thomas Jones. Other OHHS point-producers were: Jacob Blankenship, 7; Armonyi Hicks, 5; Thad Brown, 7; Levi Kiszka, 3; Malachi Baker, 3; and Noah McClung, 6.

Isaiah Coles and Dasani McCallister led the Warriors with eight points each. Also in the scoring column were: Aidan Cooke, 6; Quinten Klema, 4; Junior Crowder, 4; and John Knapp, 6.

Oak Hill (9-6) hosts Bridgeport at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4.

Huntington will visit Riverside (1-17) at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 2. "That's another tough team," said Woods.

Email: skeenan@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @gb_scribe

Oak Hill

Jacob Blankenship 1 0-0 2, Omar Lewis 0 0-0 0, Cole Nelson 1 0-0 2, Malachi Lewis 5 5-6 16, Cole Legg 1 0-0 2, Ethan Vargo-Thomas 3 2-4 8, Chance Minor 2 0-0 4, Jerimiah Jackson 1 1-1 3, Trevor Kelley 11 0-1 24. Totals: 25 8-12 61

Riverside

Michael Terrell 2 0-0 5, Samson Mitchell 3 0-0 7, Caden Ray 2 1-3 6, Nick Goble 1 0-0 3, Isaiah Coles 1 0-0 3, Kobe Copning 0 0-1 0, Braydin Ward 3 6-8 12, Bryce Green 1 0-0 2. Totals: 13 7-12 38

OH 9 13 18 21 — 61

R 5 12 11 10 — 38

Three-point field goals — OH: 3 (M. Lewis, Kelley 2); R: 5 (Terrell, Mitchell, Ray, Goble, Coles). Fouled out — None.

----In other recent high school games:

BOYS

PikeView 74

Midland Trail 71

PikeView withstood a 30-point barrage by Midland Trail's Eli Campbell on Jan. 31 to earn the 74-71 victory.

Campbell was on fire for the Patriots, pumping in 30 points on 10-of-12 shooting, which included a perfect 9-of-9 from beyond the 3-point arc.

Matthew Light also provided double-digit scoring with 19 points. Also providing offense for Midland Trail were: Justin Cooper, 4; Cody Harrell, 6; Jaden Gladwell, 8; Landon Syner, 2; and T.C. Perry, 2.

Perry had five rebounds, Gladwell and Light had six and five assists, respectively, and Harrell and Gladwell recorded three steals each.

James Monroe 111

Meadow Bridge 38

The Mavericks rolled past the Wildcats Tuesday at Oak Hill.

Eli Allen tallied 26 points and Josh Burks had 21 for James Monroe. Cooper Ridgeway added 13.

Conner Mullins scored 14 and Blake Bennett 12 for the Wildcats (3-10). Other scorers were: Brycen Sawyers, 6; and Kaiden Sims, 6.

GIRLS

The Midland Trail girls defeated Westside 56-41 on Jan. 30 to improve to 8-7.

The Riverside girls defeated Capital 61-34 on Jan. 27 to raise their record to 7-10.