Oran boys withstand Saxony's second-half comeback

ORAN, Mo. -- Every coach knows that when playing against Saxony Lutheran their team must contend with 6-foot-8 center Jack Lake.

It's not an easy matchup for a team like Oran, whose tallest regular stands just 6-2.

On Friday night at Oran High School, the Eagles overcame Lake's presence in the paint with superior quickness and pressure defense to defeat the Crusaders 75-64.

Lake still had dominant statistics, finishing with 24 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocked shots, but Oran's ball pressure forced 27 turnovers. The Eagles converted most of them into transition layups to build its lead and hold off a late rally by Saxony.

Oran (9-3) led by as many as 21 points in the third quarter, but the Crusaders (7-5) cut the lead to five on a Lake basket with 1 minute, 40 seconds left in the game.

But just a few seconds later, the Eagles whipped the ball through Saxony's full-court press and found Hunter Schlosser wide open underneath the basket for an easy layup to push the lead back to seven.

After a defensive stop, Schlosser converted another layup behind the press with under a minute to play to extend the lead to nine, and the Crusaders got no closer than seven the rest of the way.

Oran's Seth Ressel hit four consecutive free throws in the last 30 seconds to reach the final margin.

"The Ressel kid did a good job tonight of taking the lead -- him and [Chance] Tenkhoff played like seniors tonight at the end of the game," Oran coach Joe Shoemaker said. "They stepped up, put people in the right spots, hit their free throws and kind of secured it there at the end."

For most of the game it appeared that Oran would run away with an easy victory, but Saxony's perimeter shooting caught fire. They hit six 3-pointers in the second half and methodically dug into Oran's lead.

"We have that capability of getting hot, you know scoring points in bunches," Saxony coach Tim Winkler said.

Hunter Coe and Ryan Palmer did most of the outside damage for the Crusaders. They combined for seven 3-pointers in the game. Even Lake stepped out and drained a 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter.

"Their two shooters are the two guys that hit the 3s, so that didn't surprise me a lot, but I didn't know they shoot it as well as they did because they went through a stretch where they didn't miss 3s and we took some bad offensive possessions," Shoemaker said. "You put those together and that lead shrank real quick."

But Oran's experience took over late, and the Eagles scored eight of the final 10 points to keep the Crusaders at bay.

"We just didn't stop them," Winkler said. "We would score some points, but then all of a sudden they'd hit a 3 or if we tried to press they'd find the backside unguarded. We've had trouble with that with our press, getting that backside guarded. I was proud of the way we came back, but when you put yourself in such a deep hole against a good team like this, it makes it really, really tough."

Oran trailed in the early going, falling behind 10-7 in the first quarter, but the Eagles responded with an 8-0 run to take the lead for good. Oran led 19-14 after the first quarter.

"We got after it a little bit with the press," Shoemaker said. "We gave them some trouble with the tempo. We got the quicker tempo like we wanted it."

The Eagles continued to force the issue in the second quarter, creating numerous turnovers and controlling Lake's production in the paint. Oran was able to extend its lead to 40-26 by halftime.

Lake had five blocked shots and altered numerous others in the first half.

"With us he's a real tough matchup," Shoemaker said of Lake. "The thing that makes him so tough is he can shoot outside. He catches it on the perimeter, most big guys you think you're all right, but he would do the little step-away and just drain it in your eye. He's a good player."

Oran's lead continued to swell early in the third quarter, getting as big as 51-30 on a Ressel basket with six minutes to go in the period.

But Saxony closed the quarter on a 20-7 run to close the gap to 58-50 heading into the fourth.

"In the second half we did a better job of getting into the flow of things which helped on the defensive end somewhat," Winkler said. "I think it's just a matter that we played their game in the first half and they were 14 points better than us. In the second half we played our game and we were five points better."

The Eagles had five players reach double figures in scoring led by Ressel and Jacob Priggel with 18 apiece. Tenkhoff and Schlosser each had 13 and Thomas Trankler scored 11.

Coe had 20 and Palmer added 13 for the Crusaders.

Saxony 14 12 24 14 -- 64

Oran 19 21 18 17 -- 75

SAXONY LUTHERAN (64) -- Jack Lake 24, Hunter Coe 20, Ryan Palmer 13, Corie Williams 2, Elwood Voss 2, Chase Steffens 2, Taylor Richmond 1. FG 17, FT 6-10, F 16. (3-pointers: Coe 4, Palmer 3, Lake 1. Fouled out: none)

ORAN (75) -- Seth Ressel 18, Jacob Priggel 18, Chance Tenkhoff 13, Hunter Schlosser 13, Thomas Trankler 11, Garrison Mangels 2. FG 21, FT 12-16, F 12. (3-pointers: Tenkhoff 2, Priggel 1, Trankler 1. Fouled out: none)