A day after hitting on 50 percent of its shot attempts, Oak Hill saw the shoe on the other foot.
Hitting on just 23 percent (5 of 21) of their shot attempts in the first half, the Red Devils watched as Princeton scorched the nets at a 50 percent rate in the opening half, falling behind early and never recovering in a 52-38 loss to the Tigers in the Little General Battle for the Armory Pepsi Division Championship Saturday afternoon at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
The Tigers dominated the game from wire to wire, out-rebounding Oak Hill 33-18 while connecting on 6 of 11 shots from downtown. By the end of the first quarter Princeton led 17-2 and never saw its lead dip below double digits the rest of the way.
“We started out really strong,” Princeton head coach Robb Williams said. “Very happy with the first quarter, first half was good and thankfully it was. We didn’t play with the same intensity in the second half. We looked a little tired, again, third game of the season. They played the three games before us, we had 15 practices. I keep saying that just because I mean, yesterday, they really had played more games than we practiced so we’ll get in basketball shape. We rotated more guys today, which I wanted to do, solid performance on the boards and that’s exactly what we do now.”
For Oak Hill the offensive woes were evident from the jump. The Red Devils went 1 of 10 from the field in the opening quarter and were out-rebounded 12-2.
Britt Beasley broke the ice for the Tigers with a jumper, adding a 3 the next trip down the court for a 5-0 lead. Armonyi Hicks put Oak Hill on the board but a long drought ensued, one that saw the Tigers rip off a 14-0 run, 12 of those points coming in the first quarter.
When the horn sounded, the Tigers held a 17-2 advantage.
“Our offense was stagnant,” Oak Hill head coach Andy Kees said. “When you come out and see that half-court zone pressure that they provide and they do so often, their intent is to slow down your offense. They have the length and the size to close out on our shooters. Whenever we get into the spots we wanna get, it just took our guys too long to warm up to the situation. They knew what they were gonna see, we were prepared to see what they gave us. We just didn’t make shots and I didn’t think we played with the urgency that I would prefer until the second half.”
While Oak Hill’s offense struggled, the hole grew deeper.
Antoine Hicks finally snapped the Red Devils’ skid early in the second quarter but a layup from Zayden Neely and a pair of 3s from Beasley and Neely extended the advantage to 27-4, the largest of the night. It was all part of an 11 for 22 showing in the first half that featured six made 3-pointers, allowing the Tigers to offset the 14 turnovers they had.
Oak Hill narrowed the deficit to 12 points in the final frame but the game had been decided by that point.
“I literally told the guys at the half we really are playing well right now, and we’re way ahead with a nice cushion,” Williams said. “ The bad thing is we’re shooting really well and that’s probably not gonna stay. Sure enough, I was right, but we didn’t do anything differently in a second half. I didn’t think they did anything differently the second half. They had a little more gas than we did. I thought, and I’ll go back and watch, we’ll go back and watch film, but it looked to me it was all about the energy level, not lack of effort. We looked tired and we didn’t sub as well in the third quarter. There was a couple of rotations I wanted to get in and we didn’t get in any of them. So I think that made a difference in the fourth. Other than that, I can’t complain.”
Jayce Gum led the Tigers with 13 points while Zayden Neely added 10 points. Daniel Jennings finished with eight points and 12 rebounds.
Levi Kiszka led Oak Hill and all scorers with 16 points in the loss.
