photos by Charlie McDonald (charlie. mcdonald@surewestsports.com)
by Mike Finnerty (mike.finnerty@surewestsports.com)
It's been a season of close, but not close enough for the No. 14 Oak Ridge Trojans (10-6) boys basketball team.
Tough losses to No. 6 Burbank (59-56), No. 9 Bella Vista (65-55), and No. 10 Del Campo (53-49), plus a pair of near misses against No. 12 Foothill (59-55, 68-61), have made the preseason a challenge for the Trojans.
But when you have a 6'2" senior guard with the skills of Bryce Scott, a Division I signee with Lafayette College, a team's fortunes can change at any time.
Saturday night at Center High School, Scott had a game high 31 points, including a jumper from the top of the key with 23 seconds left in the game, to beat the No. 11 Center Cougars, 70-69.
Equally as impressive was the play of fellow 6'2" senior guard Matt Howard who had a big game as well with 25 points.
"We have been struggling in close games, we've turning the ball over," said Scott. "We actually maintained the ball this time. We slowed it down and took it to our advantage. Matt picked his time when to go, and I picked mine. We didn't just force it right away. We played as a team and won as a team. It was really nice."
The lead changed several times throughout the game, but Oak Ridge led 17-14 after the first and 35-34 at the half.
Center went up 41-33 midway through the third and from there the Cougars maintained the lead until late in the fourth. When Center's Chris Smith (21 points) had a break away power dunk with 3:02 remaining, the Cougars lead was at 69-64.
Little did anyone know at the time that the Smith dunk would be the final points of the night for Center. Smith fouled out of the game with 2:15 left, and from that point Oak Ridge took over.
A put-back by Bryan Bare with 1:33 to go, followed by a layup by Howard 36 seconds later, got Oak Ridge to within one at 69-68, before the left-handed Scott hit nothing but net on what proved to be the game-winner.
"We did play better defense in the last three minutes. Our offense has been killing us, so we worked on our offense. We shot a lot of free throws tonight which was our game plan. We executed pretty well, we just have to tighten up the defense."
Getting a victory over a ranked team will be nice boost for Oak Ridge given that now the Trojans will begin play in the Delta River League next week, starting first with No. 4 Pleasant Grove.