Eagles avenge loss to St. Vincent

ORAN, Mo. -- Oran's defense suffocated St. Vincent, especially in the first half.

The Eagles forced multiple turnovers and the Indians couldn't buy a basket as Oran emerged with a 52-44 victory in girls basketball action Monday.

"Our kids, we've been really trying to take a lot of pride in our defense," Oran coach Adam Friga said. "St. Vincent has a good team and we knew they like to run like a Princeton style offense with a lot of backdoor cuts. We knew we needed to take those away. We had a game plan tonight to take those backdoor cuts away and not get beat off the dribble. They did a good job of that tonight."

St. Vincent shot 23 percent (5 of 22) from the floor and turned over the ball 14 times in the first half as Oran built a 23-13 lead at the intermission.

"We just played bad," St. Vincent coach Terry Wengert said. "We just weren't ready to play. We didn't execute, and the harder we tried, the worse things got. We didn't play very good defense, and Oran played a good game. They executed very well."

St. Vincent (14-7) tried to rally in the fourth quarter. The Indians got within five points on a bucket by Kelci Besand, but the Eagles (9-9) answered with a pair of baskets to push their lead back to nine points.

"We just had to keep our head in it," Oran junior Cheyanne King said of fighting off St. Vincent's rallies.

St. Vincent cut its deficit to seven points in the final minute and put Abbey Anderson on the line for a 1-and-1 free-throw chance. Anderson missed the front end, but King was there for the rebound and put back to extinguish the Indians' hopes.

"We needed to make a little run to combat their run and our kids responded to that really well tonight," Friga said. "They did a good job of when they would make a run, we would accept the challenge and get back after them."

King proved the difference in the game. She scored a game-high 22 points, including 14 in the second half. She went 11 of 17 (65 percent) from the floor.

"We've got to have her score," Friga said. "She's got to finish down there, and she's gotten better this year of finishing stuff."

The second quarter wasn't kind to St. Vincent. The Indians shot 19 percent (3 of 16) from the floor and missed seven of their first eight shots in the quarter.

"It definitely was not there," St. Vincent sophomore Kayla Seabaugh said of her team's offense. "None of our shots were falling. A couple times we took three or four shots and nothing went in."

Seabaugh said rust was the reason for the Indians' first-half struggles.

"I think it's partly because we had a few days off," she said. "We didn't really do anything today."

Monday's game was the second meeting between the two teams, and King said the Eagles used the first meeting as motivation. St. Vincent beat Oran 53-34 in the semifinals of the Delta New Year's tournament Jan. 6. A big difference between the two games was St. Vincent junior Kali Wingerter. She scored 12 points in the first meeting but was held to two points Monday. The Indians also were without Chelsie Boxdorfer, who scored 13 points in the first meeting but is battling mononucleosis.

"It was just one of those things, nothing went right," Wengert said. "What did was too little.

"I know they tried and worked their rear ends off and just nothing was going. It was hard for them. I tell them we learn from these kinds of games."

St. Vincent 5 8 17 14 -- 44

Oran 10 13 16 13 -- 52

ST. VINCENT (44) -- Courtney Heberlie 5, Liz Martin 14, Kayla Seabaugh 13, Storm French 6, Kelci Besand 4, Kali Wingerter 2. FG 20, FT 4-9, F 10. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none)

ORAN (52) -- Cheyanne King 22, Abbey Anderson 8, Haley Glastetter 8, Taylor Irwin 8, Bethany Asmus 2, Shelbie Seyer 3, Claire Seyer 1. FG 24, FT 3-7, F 11. (3-pointers: Seyer 1. Fouled out: none)