Oak Hill – Princeton head coach Robb Williams has talked about the difficulty of finding enough playing time for his stable of athletes.
Friday night in an early season sectional showdown with Oak Hill, Williams was forced to squeeze every possible minute out of his talented team.
Fighting through foul trouble and needing two overtime periods to seal the deal, the Tigers escaped Fayette County with a 64-60 win.
“Wow, what a game. I could not be more proud of the effort,” Williams said. “We are so far behind from football. It is not an excuse, it is the truth. We have only had two-and-a-half weeks of practice with these guys. We are going to get better and better. We will find a rotation, but I keep telling them that one game you might be the man and the next game it will be somebody else. Tonight was a great example. I went really deep down the bench.”
As the game went deeper into the evening, it was clear that one team was going to walk away with a loss that fully believed it should have won the basketball game.
For Red Devils, it was the second home game in a row, against a sectional foe, where a lead after three quarters disappeared and resulted in a setback.
“That is the second one in a row that I felt like we let get away here,” Oak Hill head coach Benitez Jackson said. “We started off bad. We missed five or six layups in the first quarter. We could have easily lost the game in the first quarter, or we could have spread the lead if we made our layups and foul shots.”
While the home team was struggling out of the gate, the Tigers scored seven straight, but could not expand the lead going scoreless over the final three minutes of the first quarter.
The Red Devils only managed four points in the opening stanza, all coming in the final 2:21, but still trailed by just three points.
“Again it goes back to it being the third game of the year,” Williams said. “The first game was a little bit easier than I had hoped for and the second game we pulled away. I really think we were probably a little over confident tonight. We weren’t real focused this week at practice.”
“When we get a lead like that, we have to pull away,” Williams went on to say. “Especially against teams like Oak Hill where you know it is going to be a fight. It was a good game though. I am not sure how anybody on our side could not be happy pulling out that win.”
Failing to expand the lead bit the Tigers quickly when Oak Hill found the mark in the second quarter to take a 21-16 lead at the break.
A big key to the reversal of fortunes was seven points from Andre Wright in the quarter. Playing his first year with the Red Devils, Wright tallied 20 points in his best performance of the young season.
“I thought he played really well tonight and we feel like he can do that even more consistently. We tell him to use the athleticism that God gave him,” Jackson said. “He shot the ball well and was active on defense in the zone, plus he had a couple of steals. It is just four games in, so hopefully he can keep playing better.”
Oak Hill carried a six point advantage into the final quarter, but once again struggled with heavy pressure which allowed Princeton to roar back to take the lead.
Following back-to-back scores from Nik Fleming, Kalum Kizer scored inside to give the visitors that lead with 4:52 to play.
Additional scores from Kiser, Gavin Stover and Fleming pushed the lead to seven points and Oak Hill was reeling.
Wright snapped the Princeton momentum with a huge 3-pointer, which was quickly answered by a basket from Fleming.
Things went awry for the Tigers on the next possession, however, when they were called for a foul and assessed two technical falls in the fracas.
Malachi Lewis knocked down six straight free-throws to tie the game with 1:46 to play which eventually went to overtime.
Oak Hill then took a quick five-point lead in the first overtime with the big blow coming on 3-pointer from Wright off an offensive rebound from Jacob Blankenship.
With Princeton now the one that appeared to be reeling, senior Koen Sartin stepped in and hit a huge 3-pointer to restore order for the Tigers.
On a night where Princeton struggled mightily from the foul line, the Tigers made two of their four attempts down the stretch to tie the game and send it to a second overtime period.
“We got the two technical (fouls) and that was tough. We were in foul trouble and we lost three big players for us,” Williams said. “Nik is tough offensively and losing him was tough. Tonight having all these athletes was the difference maker for us. When one guy went down, another guy came in and stepped up big.”
Sartin opened the second extra period with two dagger 3’s that put the momentum squarely in the corner of the Tigers.
“He hit a couple of big 3’s in the second overtime and that was big for them,” Jackson said. “They took it from us basically. They have some great athletes out there and they hit some timely 3’s, which is a winning formula.”
Oak Hill cut the lead back to one point on two occasions, but could not get over the hump. The Tigers made just enough free-throws down the stretch to hold on, including back-to-back makes from Marquel Lowe to seal the game.
“We are trying to find a rhythm and sometimes it’s tough. This is the best group of boys as far as listening and having the right attitudes,” Williams said. “I was disappointed in the two technicals and that could have deflated everybody. (Kennedy Award winner) Dom (Collins) was really good at telling everyone to let it go and just go out there and win. It definitely could have went either way.”
P: 7 9 10 19 5 14 – 64
OH: 4 17 11 13 5 10 – 60
Princeton
Nik Fleming 14, Koen Sartin 12, Gavin Stover 10, Gavin Brown 1, Dom Collins 1, Marquel Lowe 2, Brit Beasley 14, Zayden Neely 2, Brad Mossor 3, Kalum Kiser 5. Totals: 22 11-27 64.
Oak Hill
Armonyi Hicks 1, Andre Wright 20, Malachi Lewis 24, Brent Conley 3, Trevor Kelly 9, Thomas Jones 2. Jacob Blankenship 1. Totals: 16 21-33 60.
