Oran girls basketball team wins district title

BELL CITY, Mo. -- Senior Allie Cummins knocked down her first four shots of the game, and the Oran girls basketball team used dominant defense to cruise to a 60-19 victory over the St. Paul Lutheran Giants on Thursday in the Class 1 District 2 championship at Bell City High School.

Oran (14-10) forced St. Paul Lutheran (12-14) to turn the ball over 33 times, including 13 in the first quarter.

"We focused on defense from day one, and the whole group has bought into that," Oran coach Ethan Evans said. "... We kind of thought coming in that we needed to control the tempo, get up and and press and force them into some misses. We really wanted to push the ball up the floor against them."

The victory marks the second consecutive district title for Oran, which made the switch from Class 2 to Class 1 this season.

"This was our goal from day one, to get back to the district title game and win another district championship," Evans said. "It's important for these girls, and it's important for building the future of this program."

Cummins led the Eagles in scoring with 16 points.

"She's a great senior leader," Evans said. "She's one of the girls that's been there before, and she played a contributing role last year. I knew coming in that she should take a leadership role, and she sure did. She came out and just was on fire from the get-go."

Oran outscored the Giants 13-5 in the second quarter and held a 31-11 advantage at the break.

"They were ready to play tonight," Evans said. "All day in class, they've been talking about it and ready to go. They wish they could have been playing since this morning, so the energy they came out with was great."

Brianna Stause knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter, during which the Eagles pushed their lead to 52-15 heading into the final period.

Oran's Ashlyn McIntosh scored six of her 14 points in the fourth quarter. Tatum May added 12 points for the Eagles, who shot 26 of 75 (35 percent) from the floor.

"We played great as a team tonight," said Cummins, who recently returned to the starting lineup after breaking her nose earlier this year. "That's probably the best I've seen us play as a team all season."

St. Paul Lutheran was led by nine points from Tia Jordan. Giants coach Andy Sherrill said his team anticipated Oran's pressure defense.

"We worked really hard this week to try and get better with [the pressure defense]. They were just better than us tonight," Sherrill said. "Congratulations to them. They deserved to win the district.

"This is our first year we were ever eligible. We only have 16 kids in our whole school. Seven of those kids play basketball, and we're really proud of them. I think we have a bright future. We just came up short tonight."

The Eagles will take on Naylor in a Class 1 sectional at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday at Bloomfield High School. Naylor upended Couch 49-30 for its eighth consecutive district title.

"We want to go forward. ... We've had a chance to watch [Naylor] a couple times. They're tough," Evans said. "They're big. They're a veteran team that's been there a thousand times in this same situation, so we want to go in with the same mindset that if we play our game and play our half-court defense like we have, we'll be in the game."

St. Paul 6 5 4 4 -- 19

Oran 18 13 21 8 -- 60

ST. PAUL LUTHERAN (19) -- Tia Jordan 9, Emily Brakefield 3, Caroline McClanahan 2, Kyle Lapusan 2, Catherine Mell 2, Andrea McClanahan 1. FG 6-37, FT 7-16, F 11. (3-pointers: None. Fouled out: none.)

ORAN (60) -- Allie Cummins 16, Ashlyn McIntosh 14, Tatum May 12, Brianna Stause 8, Hannah Scherer 6, Kaylen Glastetter 4. FG 26-75, FT 4-11, F 13. (3-pointers: Cummins 2, Stause 2. Fouled out: none.)