Oak Ridge boys basketball team finally finds mark, beats Delta in semis

OAK RIDGE -- Oak Ridge boys basketball coach Adam Stoneking had a simple message at halftime for his players in the Class 1 District 2 semifinals Tuesday night.

His team trailed Delta 16-14, and the message for his Blue Jays was to start making shots or the season would end quickly.

The Blue Jays responded.

Oak Ridge turned the two-point deficit into a 12-point lead and pulled away for a 50-38 victory.

"'In 16 minutes it could all be over,'" Stoneking said, recalling his words to his team. "'We've worked from the district championship game last year to today. That's what we've worked for.'

"I think they were a little more pumped up. They got the message. They understood this could be over real quick, and we don't want it to be. They just really started moving their feet and started working a little more."

The Blue Jays used full-court pressure and half-court traps to reverse the course of the game. They found their offense in the process.

"We just really came alive and we were able to stop them on defense and get easy buckets on some layups and we weren't forcing stuff," Oak Ridge sophomore Ryan Below said. "We were getting the ball inside and making easy shots. Nothing hard, nothing fancy, just easy."

Oak Ridge tied the game on a layup by Dakota Zoellner, then took the lead for good on a layup by Kyle Rohde.

The Blue Jays then finally got the 3-pointer they'd been waiting for the entire game. It came from sophomore Kelby Brown, who earned a starting nod for the first time.

Brown started in place of Jake LeGrand, who was out with concussion-like symptoms.

"Kelby Brown stepped up big tonight in the third quarter," Stoneking said. "First-time starter this year on the varsity and he just really stepped up big for us in the third quarter without Jake LeGrand."

It was the first 3-pointer for Oak Ridge, which misfired on all eight of its attempts in the first half.

Delta finally got on the board more than three minutes into the second half with a Dallas Naramore jumper, but Below answered with a conventional three-point play and a jumper to get the Blue Jays' fans on their feet.

"Size caught up with us," Delta coach Jimmy Johnson said. "They just have so much size. Something a lot of people don't see is that size wears you down because you have to work so hard to defend it. We did a great job in the first half, and the second half we just kind of softened up inside and wouldn't body them up as much as we were, and our double teams weren't as effective. They got more size than some [Class] 3A and 4A schools, and gosh it just wears you down."

The Blue Jays rode that size throughout the quarter and extended their lead to 35-23. Delta never challenged that cushion in the fourth.

It wasn't all pretty for Oak Ridge.

The first half saw the Blue Jays shoot 7 of 22 (32 percent) from the field and miss both their free throws.

"I really got on them in the locker room," Stoneking said. "It wasn't about defense or what we were doing offensively. It was about missing shots. We were 0 of 8 from outside on wide open 3s in the first half, and we can't do that. Our strength is our post play, and when we aren't hitting outside, they can really double and triple Ryan and Kyle inside."

Delta struggled on the offensive side as well.

"It seemed like we couldn't get comfortable," Stoneking said. "As soon as I thought we were going to get in a rhythm, it would be a bad turnover or a bad pass. Two or three times we turned it over after a steal. It just seemed like we were so out of rhythm."

Foul problems for Below, Oak Ridge's leading scorer, was a major reason for the struggles.

Below was whistled for his second foul with 3 minutes, 46 seconds left in the first quarter.

"That was real frustrating because you have to sit out pretty soon," Below said. "Luckily they didn't tear away too much."

Rohde rose to the occasion.

The senior forward scored six of his 10 points in the first half. He tied Below for team-high scoring honors.

"In the first half, we knew what they were going to do," Rohde said. "They were going to put two or three guys on Ryan, so I just had to step up and be the guy."

Naramore finished with a game-high 18 points. Greg Brawley added 12 points.

"He really came out and stepped up tonight," Johnson said about Naramore. "Greg [Brawley] did a good job of finding him early on, and we did a good job finding him in the press."

It wasn't enough to help the Bobcats overcome a poor third quarter.

"We didn't score a lot, but we battled," Johnson said. "We were up two at half, and I told them this is basketball. There's nothing wrong with the score, 16-14, because you battled through a scoring drought."

Delta 12 4 7 15 -- 38

Oak Ridge 8 6 21 15 -- 50

DELTA (38) -- Dwight Nance 2, Dallas Naramore 18, Greg Brawley 12, Tanner Schabbing 4, Dillon Lincoln 2. FG 13. F 18. FT 10-15. (3-pointers Brawley 2. Fouled out: none.)

OAK RIDGE (50) -- Kyle Rohde 10, Dakota Zoellner 3, Ryan Below 10, Kelby Brown 5, Ethan Seyer 2, Hunter Seyer 7, Lance Rohde 7, Corvin Schoen 4, Ben Stewart 2. FG 19. F 13. (3-pointers: H. Seyer, Brown. Fouled out: none.)