Spruce Mountain’s Abbie Ortiz (32) tries to wrestle the ball away from a pair of Oak Hill players during an MVC game at Phoenix Dome on Thursday night in Jay. (Sun Journal photo by Tony Blasi)
JAY — Oak Hill took away the outside from Spruce Mountain’s Haley Turcotte, and when the Phoenix’s transition game slowed down, the Raiders’ offense sped up in a Mountain Valley Conference girls’ basketball game at The Nest on Thursday night.
The undefeated Raiders (9-0) remain untarnished in the MVC after putting the kibosh on the Phoenix (7-4) with a 45-28 victory.
“We grind things out,” Oak Hill coach Mike Labonte said. “A couple of players stepped up — Sadie Waterman actually hit a few shots in the second half to kind of get things going.
“We generally don’t look for offense from her, but it was great for her to do that.
“Abby (Nadeau) was typically her good steady self at both ends of the court. Good team effort grinding it out after a couple of days off from school and facing a tough team in a tough place to play.”
In the first quarter, Spruce went on a 7-1 run before Oak Hill bounced right back with a narrow 9-7 lead going in the second quarter.
From there on in, the Raiders’ offense really started to flourish while the Phoenix struggled on offense. By halftime, Oak Hill was still on top with a 20-16 lead.
“Yeah, it was very similar to the Mountain Valley game the other night,” Spruce Mountain coach Zachary Keene said. “We were getting good looks, but we were not knocking it down.
“When we play fast in transition, they were tough to handle. When we started slowing things down, which I think that kind of happened tonight, we were playing well and things started slowing down a little bit, that’s when they started something.
“So we need to start playing with urgency the entire night, not taking minutes at a time off.”
Nadeau, a senior forward, delivered the game-high 16 points and went 5-for-6 from the charity stripe. Waterman helped out with 12 points.
Spruce’s Calley Baker collected a team-high 10 points and Turcotte was held to nine points thanks to Waterman’s persistence on defense.
“Obviously, she is the focus of everybody’s attention and that’s what Sadie usually does,” Labontte said. “She usually does that (guarding people) really well. The Turcotte girl can shoot and you don’t want to give her a lot space.
“Again, the Phoenix are a good team. They work hard and they are 7-4 and they are going to beat some people.”
The Raiders started to distance themselves from the Phoenix and erupted with 14 points in the fourth quarter to seal Spruce’s fate.
Spruce Mountain’s Jaycee Cole (4) looks to pass the ball as Oak Hill’s Desirae Dumais (13) defends during an MVC game at Phoenix Dome on Thursday night in Jay. (Sun Journal photo by Tony Blasi)
Spruce Mountain’s Haley Turcotte (24) tries to get around Oak Hill’s Sara Moring (11) during an MVC game at Phoenix Dome on Thursday night in Jay. (Sun Journal photo by Tony Blasi)
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