Oak Hill senior forward Sara Moring (11) intervenes as Spruce Mountain junior guard Jaycee Cole (4) heads for the basket during a game in Wales on Friday night. (Sun Journal photo by Tony Blasi)
WALES — Oak Hill girls’ basketball coach Mike Labonte knows it can be a real grind when teams play his team.
The Raiders were their deliberate and steady selves through three quarters before ratcheting up the action and pulling away from fast-and-furious Spruce Mountain (8-8) in the fourth quarter for a 45-31 victory Friday night.
“We typically grind games out and stuff,” Labonte, whose team has beaten the Phoenix twice this season and is now 15-1, said, “and that’s kind of our mantra.
“It’s a close game or it will be tied, it might be down and the next thing you know you look up and we are winning by 15. It is just a grind. Our girls are really good at that.”
The first half featured a neck-and-neck battle, with Spruce building an 11-8 lead after the first quarter. But the Raiders reeled off 13 points and held Spruce to six points in the second quarter to take command with a 21-17 lead.
“I saw at times when we got a little bit more composed,” Labonte said. “As the game progressed, we settled down and of course it is always good to make a couple of shots. That’s always helpful.
“Spruce Mountain did a great job and they will have fun with Winthrop tomorrow.”
The great divide between the two teams widened when the Raiders started hitting shots from the perimeter in the third and fourth quarters as well as crashing the boards.
There was only one double-digit scorer from Oak Hill because a majority of the team got into the act, and it explains the six 3-pointers that came in quite handy down the stretch.
Junior guard Desirae Dumais knocked down three of the six 3-pointers for nine points, but it was senior forward Abby Nadeau who turned in the team-high 11 points and went 3-fo-4 from the free-throw line.
Spruce Mountain senior guard Haley Turcotte threw in the game-high 12 points. Teammate and junior guard Jaycee Cole collected eight points. Both Turcotte and Cole each dropped in a pair of 3-pointers.
“Coming into it, we wanted to challenge them from the perimeter, make them beat us from out there. I thought we did a really good job,” Spruce Mountain coach Zach Keene said. “The difference to me was the rebounding. It is tough to rebound out of a zone, and they crash hard and they are physical. That’s what happens, I guess, but as far what we made them try to do, I thought we did a good job of it, certainly the first three and half quarters.
“That’s arguably the best team in the conference … on the road. Relatively short-handed without a starter and executed a game plan exactly how I wanted to do it and went toe-to-toe with them. I told them I don’t measure losses … but I was proud of their effort.”
Spruce Mountain senior guard Emily White tries to shake off Oak Hill’s Anna Beach (20) and junior guard Julia Noel (3) as White drives the baseline during a game in Wales on Friday night. (Sun Journal photo by Tony Blasi)
Oak Hill sophomore forward Anna Beach (20) tries to stop Spruce Mountain senior guard Calley Baker from taking a shot during a game in Wales on Friday night. (Sun Journal photo by Tony Blasi)
Oak Hill senior forward Abby Nadeau (33) passes the to junior guard Desirae Dumais (13) during a game in Wales on Friday night. (Sun Journal photo by Tony Blasi)
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