Oak Ridge boys basketball team's new offense clips Saxony Lutheran

A foul was called every 39.2 seconds during the Oak Ridge at Saxony Lutheran boys basketball game Friday night. There were seven more fouls called than field goals made, and the teams combined to make 37 free throws and miss 29 of them.

Oak Ridge accounted for 20 of those misses, but the Blue Jays had 22 of the makes, which helped them to a 71-59 road victory.

Saxony Lutheran was whistled for 31 fouls in the game as the Blue Jays broke out a new offense designed to force the ball to their post players in the paint.

"They were able to catch whenever they wanted to in the lane and that just can't happen," Saxony Lutheran coach Dane Church said.

"It could've gone both ways," Church said later about all the foul calls. "They called it pretty tight early. I told our guys we just have to play good defense and not foul, but it just snowballed from the beginning, and we were in a hole right from the start."

Oak Ridge's Lance Rohde looks to shoot as Saxony Lutheran's Gabe Bohnert defends during the third quarter Friday.

The Crusaders were in the double bonus before the first quarter was over but trailed just 31-27 at halftime thanks in part to Oak Ridge making just 10 of its 20 free throws in the first half.

"It's the worst thing in the world," Oak Ridge coach Adam Stoneking said. "We have practice and we probably shoot 50 free throws in practice every day and most of these guys make 9 out of 10. So then I tell them we're going to run on every miss, then they'll all make 9 of 10 or they'll all make 8 out of 10. I just think they put too much pressure on themselves."

Stoneking made a decision to change his team's offense after a loss to Delta on Tuesday.

"He said, 'This is how it's going to be. We're going to learn a new offense. You have two days to learn it,'" Oak Ridge senior Kyle Rohde said.

"It's different," Rohde said, explaining the offense focuses on two post players and three guards. "It took a little time to adjust. At first I was a little sketchy about it, but I kind of like it now."

The loss to Delta came just after it was decided that senior guard Jake Light would not play again this season due to a knee injury.

"We really put too much pressure on our guards in that game," Stoneking said. "So what we really focused on the last two days was getting the ball inside. Take pressure off our guards, that way they're not trying to do too much or create too much. We have the inside guys that can. We have the size, we have the depth inside, so that's what we really focused on the last two days."

The Blue Jays rotated in 10 players against Saxony Lutheran, including two juniors and two sophomores as guards. Stoneking said the depth allowed Oak Ridge to pull away slowly in the second half although execution wasn't consistent.

"The last three years I've played six or seven guys consistently, sometimes five for a whole half," Stoneking said. "This year we have so much depth. I have 10 guys that I have no problems putting in the game at any point.

"I think really in the fourth quarter it looked like they really just didn't have their legs in their shots. A lot of really short shots. I think that's really what happened. We kind of wore them down."

The Crusaders' Nick Johnson, who had been tasked with guarding Oak Ridge's Ryan Below most of the game, fouled out with 5 minutes, 30 seconds to go in the game. Below finished with a game-high 20 points.

"We want them to foul because once that guy gets that first or that second one then they become less aggressive," Stoneking said. "Later in the fourth quarter, Ryan got a couple really easy put-ins where the guy just kind of stood up. He didn't want to foul because he knew it was going to happen."

Clayton Carver led Saxony Lutheran with 14 points, including three 3-pointers.

The Crusaders made three of their first four attempts from behind the arc, but finished 4 of 17 from 3-point range (24 percent).

"In our offense, we want to attack and find our shooters," Church said. "Those first couple fell. I'm never going to tell a shooter not to keep shooting, but they just weren't falling then. We had to switch up our game plan later on and keep attacking."

Oak Ridge improved to 2-3, while Saxony Lutheran dropped to 3-2.

"They played hard, but we've got to get tougher on defense and a lot of aspects of our game, rebounding especially," Church said. "Foul trouble was a big problem tonight, and I just thought they played harder than us and out-rebounded us."

Oak Ridge 15 16 17 23 -- 71

Saxony 12 15 12 20 -- 59

OAK RIDGE (71) -- Ethan Seyer 5, Hunter Seyer 3, Kelby Brown 7, Ryan Below 20, Jake LeGrand 10, Dakota Zoellner 6, Kyle Rohde 7, Ben Stewart 3, Lucas Rohde 3, Corvin Schoen 7. FG 22, FT 22-42, F 18. (3-pointers: H. Seyer 1, Brown 1, LeGrand 1, Zoellner 1, Stewart 1. Fouled out: none.)

SAXONY LUTHERAN (59) -- Trent Steffens 13, Logan Sprandel 4, Clayton Carver 14, Brandon Fritsche 4, Taylor Johnson 6, Gabe Bohnert 6, Nick Johnson 12. FG 19, FT 14-21, F 31. (3-pointers: Sprandel 1, Carver 3. Fouled out: Sprandel, N. Johnson.)