OAK RIDGE STRUGGLES TO CURE EARLY SEASON WOES

Some of the preseason optimism has worn off of first-year Oak Ridge coach Chris Winkler with the Blue Jays' 1-5 record going into last Friday's game with Kelly.

"I'm going to learn not say anything until the season gets going," Winkler said. "I don't know what's wrong."

Oak Ridge, the No. 13 seed for the tournament, will meet No. 4 Scott City at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the first round. The Blue Jays know first-hand the challenge that's ahead -- the Rams have already beaten Oak Ridge 98-51.

"We just played (Scott City) last Tuesday night," Winkler said. "I don't expect anything different. They run the floor well, they pass the ball real well, and shoot the ball even better.

"We didn't go zone at all, because we knew that if we would have went zone, they would have really killed us. It was bad enough when we were going man. They can hit that outside shot. They run their offense really well and they get it to the open man and they drain it."

Oak Ridge has one senior and four juniors in its starting set. Matt Preusser, who averages 12 points and eight rebounds, is a 6-2 senior.

The juniors are 6-3 Nick Friese (14 points, eight rebounds), 6-3 Eric Hobeck (10 points), 6-1 Darren Hahs (eight points) and 6-0 Brent Schreiner (seven points, eight assists).

Winkler said his team's primary goal is a better game against Scott City.

"I'd like to have a better showing against Scott City than we did here at our place, definitely," he said. "If it's up to the seeding, we would have Advance in the (consolation) second round. And I think we should have played a lot better against Advance, because we played them in the Woodland Tournament.

"I'm hoping to at least go three games. As the 13th seed, that's pretty difficult, but I don't think it's impossible."

To attain the goals, Oak Ridge will have to play better defense.

"We've been giving up too many points. I think we need to pick it up on defense. We're giving up around 78 points a game. That's too high for us, because we're not getting up there ourselves.

"And we've been impatient. That's been a big topic of our problem. We're not very patient with the ball. We need to slow the ball down."