CONTESTED SHOT — During Tuesday’s game inside the Brook Wellness Center, Brook’s Andrew Petrella attempted a shot that was blocked by Oak Glen’s Mason Kell. – Andrew Grimm
WELLSBURG — It wasn’t a great basketball game, but it was OK for Oak Glen.
On Tuesday night, the Golden Bears performed well enough to earn a 49-40 season-opening victory on the road at Brook in a competition between young, physical, low-scoring programs filled with turnovers. Ta.
“It was one of those games where you work your butt off.” Jerry Everly of Oak Glen said. “We had a lot of guys in our lineup who had never been in that situation late in a game before…it was a big learning experience.
“I was worried that it would be difficult to adjust because of the level of the national team and the speed of the game, but I thought they did pretty well and I thought they played really hard. All we asked them to do was come out here and play hard and hope we hit enough shots to win, and that’s kind of what we did to win. The idea was to hit enough.
Oak Glen led 13-10 after one game, led 17-14 at halftime, and the score only increased in the second half. The Golden Bears held a lead of around five points for most of the third quarter, but pushed it up to 10 points late in the frame before a 3-pointer by Tyler Evans led to an 11-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
Brook fought back to within five points in the final minutes, but the Bruins were forced to foul and Oak Glenn took a shot from the line to break the game.
“Brook is physical. They’re not as big as normal, but they’re still physical.” Everly said. “They had big, strong players and they played hard as well. They made some big foul shots at the end.”
Brook’s slow start to the attack was somewhat expected. It looks like they’ll be replacing most of last year’s scoring, but the effort to get back into the scoring late was a positive sign.
“We have a very young, very inexperienced team.” Brooke coach Adam Shinskey said. “We started the first half 0-9, 0-10, and about four of them were layups. All of our players played really hard, they played really hard and it’s just a lot of effort. It’s not my fault. We expected some growing pains and knew we were going to struggle shooting… We got better in the fourth quarter and will continue to get better.
“As we saw in the summer, our players didn’t quit, they had passion in practice and they played hard. This group has passion, so we’re going to have to deal with it. .”
Gavin Geis led the Bears with 16 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks and an assist, but fouled out with over two minutes remaining. Will Weakley scored the Bears’ first six points to extend Oak Glen’s early lead, adding 11 points and six rebounds along the way, and Mason Kell had nine points and four assists.
Brook got 15 points and four rebounds from Andrew Murdock, who fouled out before the end, and 13 points from Jamiel Makkanen. Both Bruins hit two threes.
to the next
Oak Glen: Hosts county rival Weir High School in its home opener Friday night.
Brook: Plays against Wheeling Park on Friday in the Sam Andy Classic at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling.
Oak Glen 49, Brook 40
OG 13-4-16-16 – 49
B 10-4-8-18 – 40
Oak Glen: Kell 2 4-4 9; Weekly 4 3-4 11; Wylie 1 3-4 5; Geis 7 2-4 16; Evans 2 1-2 6; Nicely 1 0-0 2; Dawson 0 0-0 0. Total: 17, 13-19; 49.
Brook: Yost 1 0-2 2; Sperlinger 1 0-0 3; Murdoch 5 3-4 15; Makkanen 3 5-5 13; Urso 1 1-2 4; Petrella 0 0-2 0; McMahan 0 0-0 0 ;Fordor 0 0-0 0;Provenzano 0 3-4 3;Morris 0 0-0 0;Ferrell 0 0-0 0. Total: 11, 12-19; 40.
3-point goals: Oakglen 2 (Kell, Evans); Brook 6 (Murdock 2, Makkanen 2, Spellinger, Erso). Assists: Oak Glen 12 (Kell 4); Brook 9 (Urso 4). Rebounds: Oak Glen 29 (Gais 11); Brook 25 (Yost 6). Block: Oak Glen 4 (Gais 3). Brook 3 (Yost 2). Turnovers: Oak Glen 26; Brook 13.
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