Oran boys basketball team hangs on to defeat Saxony

JACKSON -- After leading by as many as 15 points in the first half, the Oran boys basketball team saw that advantage shrink to just one point with a minute to play against host Saxony on Friday night.

The Eagles made 12 of their 15 shots from the perimeter in the first half, but their outside shooting cooled down in the second half.

Oran coach Joe Shoemaker had one task for his team as the clock slowly ticked down in the final seconds.

"We needed drives to the basket," Shoemaker said. "Sometimes it's a bad thing when you hit so many perimeter shots to start with and kids start to fall in love with it. Then the defense is charging out harder and we just had to take advantage and take it to the rim a little bit more."

Oran's Hunter Schlosser responded to his coach's advice with a shot-fake from beyond the arc and a drive to the basket for a layup finish and a foul.

The senior sank his free throw with ease to put the game out of reach and help guide Oran to a 55-49 road victory.

"The first half I was feeling good, and the second half I kind of cooled off. Our team wasn't really hitting any shots in the second half or rebounding that great," Schlosser said. "Coach was telling us to stop settling for open jumpers and open 3s and take it to the basket a lot more and try to draw a foul. I saw an opening in the lane and just took it in."

Schlosser had a game-high 30 points, including three makes from beyond the arc and seven free throws to lead Oran (9-5).

Free throws proved to be the biggest downfall for Saxony (6-7) in the loss.

The Crusaders shot a dismal 52 percent (21 of 40) from the charity stripe and missed some of their more important shots at a critical time in the fourth quarter.

Saxony coach Tim Winkler said his team spends countless amounts of time working on free throws in practice, but for some reason it hasn't been an advantage for them on game days.

"Every day when we practice we run what we call 'team free throw.' Somebody steps up with a one-and-one situation. Make them both, we stand there and clap for you. Make the first one and miss the second we run a little bit. Miss the first one and we run a little bit more," Winkler said. "In practice I'd say we're about 65 percent. We always shoot 25 free throws in the middle of practice and 25 free throws at the end. So each kid probably shoots close to 50 free throws a day. With all that being said, it's so hard to sit there and watch us miss so many of them. It'd be one thing if we neglected them in practice, but we don't. I don't know if it's a case of lack of confidence or a mental block -- I don't know. I wish I knew. When the time comes when there are people standing and all eyes are on you, we just have trouble sticking it in."

Winkler added that Saxony has lost six games by six points or less this season and has missed at least 10 free throws in every one of those close losses.

The Crusaders shot 6 of 14 from the line in the fourth and missed six free throws in the final three minutes of the game.

Oran jumped out to an early 15-5 lead and led for the entire game.

Schlosser and Jake Priggel put the team on their back in the first quarter by scoring all of the Eagles' 18 points.

"He's fun to watch when he's on fire like that," Priggel said about Schlosser, who had 20 points in the first half. "It was us just kind of running the show for a little bit -- sharing the ball, taking good shots and you could tell that he was feeling it from everywhere on the court."

The Eagles opened up their largest lead of the game at 30-15 with a 12-7 run to start the second, but Saxony closed out the half on a strong note with an 8-2 run.

The Crusaders hit 6 of 8 free throws and Voss added a layin to cut Oran's lead to just nine points at the break.

Winkler said the Crusaders were fired up in the locker room at halftime and wanted to limit Oran's scoring chances to start the second half. To do so, Saxony switched to a man-to-man defense.

"When we cut it to single digits right before the half, I just said, 'We've got to pick up where we left off. We can't let them start the second half like they did the first half,'" Winkler said. "We got out of our zone and went to a man right away. I wish I'd been smart enough to do that a little earlier because that seemed to help quite a bit."

The Crusaders slowed down the Eagles' offense considerably in the third and managed to stay within nine points for the first six minutes of the second half.

Oran was held to just 13 points and only made 4 of 12 shots and three free throws in the third quarter.

Shoemaker said it was a combination of his players taking bad shots and making mistakes.

"We cooled off some. Hunter was very hot early and the guys did a good job of giving him the basketball," he said. "When we cooled off, we were taking quick shots and some of them were bad, but it's something we'll learn."

Priggel scored on a jumper from the top of the key with 1:23 to go before Saxony went on a 6-1 run to end the third and cut the Oran lead to 45-41.

Both teams started the fourth with two turnovers until Saxony freshman Graesen Meystedt scored on a layup to pull the Crusaders within two points.

Oran scored the next four points before Saxony went on a 5-0 run to make it a one-point game before Schlosser's drive to the rim and a free throw ended Saxony's chance at a comeback.

Voss led the Crusaders with 12 points, while Chase Steffens added 11.

Schlosser hit two more free throws in the final 15 seconds and Priggel added one with five seconds remaining and finished with 16 points.

The Eagles made 12 of 21 attempts from the free-throw line (57 percent) but 6 of 8 in the fourth quarter.

"It was big. It pretty much put us over the top there because it probably would have been a tie game had we not made those," Priggel said. "It's helped us the last couple big games actually. The last couple wins we've had were because we hit our free throws."

Oran had a four-game winning streak snapped in a loss to Bernie earlier this week.

Shoemaker said the Eagles had not been shooting well as of late and that a tough road win and a good shooting performance were just what they needed to gain some momentum.

"We didn't shoot free throws very well or shoot very well period for a stretch there," Shoemaker said. "But the kids focused in late, and made their free throws, which gives you a little more breathing room. This is a tough place to come play. To make some of the mistakes that we did and still persevere here at the end. It's a nice win for us."

Oran 18 14 13 10 -- 55

Saxony 8 15 18 8 -- 49

ORAN (55) -- Hunter Sclosser 30, Jake Priggel 16, Max Priggel 5, Garrison Mangels 2, Jason Bennett 2. FG 19, FT 12-21, F 28 (3-pointers: Schlosser 3, Jake Priggel 2. Fouled out: Thomas Trankler, Max Priggel.)

SAXONY (49) -- Elwood Voss 12, Chase Steffens 11, Graesen Meystedt 9, Ryan Palmer 6, Corie Williams 5, Nathan Ruark 4, Paris Johnson 2. FG 13, FT 21-40, F 20 (3-pointers: Steffens 1, Williams 1. Fouled out: none.)