Despite the loss of their two senior leaders to injury and a plethora of other factors out of their control before the season began, the Oak Hill Golden Eagles have exceeded expectations.
A young, talented, and hungry group, the Golden Eagles have consistently showcased improvement with each passing contest, and several players, thrust into bigger roles, have made the most of their opportunities.
Tuesday night’s contest with the Western Panthers was another step in the right direction.
Behind a stout showing from sophomore Landon Biegel and a strong first half, the Golden Eagles improved to 6-2 on the season and 4-0 on their home floor, defeating the Panthers 52-44 in their final tuneup before the Christmas holiday.
“I’m proud, particularly of the first half,” Oak Hill Head Coach Kevin Renbarger said. “They followed the gameplan pretty much to a T. They dialed in on the personnel, and I thought defensively, we were really, really good. Landon was really good in the first half…and we got enough scoring from other people that they had to honor that. I couldn’t ask for anything more in the first half.”
From the opening tip, it was clear that the Golden Eagles were trying to run their offense underneath the basket, and in the first half, it worked to perfection. Biegel, who scored 24 points in the contest, scored 13 points on five-for-five shooting and a pair of free throws in the opening quarter, leading an efficient attack that helped the Golden Eagles take a 20-12 lead after the first eight minutes.
More of a three-point shooter in his freshman campaign, Biegel has developed more of an inside game in his second high school season, and it paid dividends in the first quarter.
“He was forced into a role that he would have to accept more of the responsibility on the offensive end, and he is certainly willing to do that,” Renbarger said. “He is able to score in flurries.”
As a team, the Golden Eagles shot the lights out in the opening frame, hitting their first six shots and finishing eight-of-11 overall.
“We knew coming into this game that we had some areas where we could exploit them offensively, and I think the high percentage of the shots came from around the basket,” Renbarger said. “We got into what we call the rack zone, in close to the basket, and exploited matchups. Everything was clicking on the offensive end.”
Defensively, Oak Hill clamped down on Western in the first half, holding a big, physical group to just 16 total points and six-of-23 from the field. In the second quarter, the Golden Eagles held the Panthers to just one-of-11 shooting.
“They’re big. They are physically thick and are very well-coached in regard to how to post up, how to find the post, and know what they are looking for,” Renbarger said. “It was a really big concern, but for our kids to come in and play the way that they did in that post area…they did a fantastic job, especially in the first half.”
The scoring slowed in the second quarter, but the Golden Eagles continued to produce on both ends of the floor, building a 28-16 lead at the halftime break. Biegel scored five of Oak Hill’s eight points in the frame, giving him 18 in the first two quarters.
However, in the third quarter, the Panthers began to push back.
Despite a well-played first half, the Golden Eagles did not return to the floor with the same energy, and it nearly proved costly. Oak Hill turned the ball over six times in the stanza and saw their 12-point advantage cut down to four. Fortunately, Kian Hite helped to slow the bleeding at the buzzer, scoring on a putback basket to make it a 35-29 Oak Hill lead.
The Panthers kept pressing in the fourth quarter, trimming the Golden Eagles’ lead to 43-40 with 2:02 remaining in the contest. However, the Golden Eagles did not waver, eventually swinging momentum back in their favor and knocking down key free throws in the guts of the game.
“All of the energy in the fourth, when they got it down to three, was on [Western’s] end of the floor, and our kids responded,” Renbarger said. “We’ve had a lot of teams over the years that would tuck tail…and this group did not. I’m proud of that.”
Oak Hill went to the line 16 times in the fourth quarter and knocked 13 of those attempts, including eight of their last nine. Hite finished seven-of-10 from the charity stripe, while Biegel, Matthew Strange, and Mason McKinney each added a pair to help the Golden Eagles close the game out.
“We are turning into a pretty good free-throw shooting team, and that’s what helped us,” Renbarger said. “We were struggling to find ways to score, struggling to find shooters in the right spots, and struggling to concentrate. To get fouls, get ourselves on the foul line, see the ball go through the hoop, and answer some of the things that they were doing, that was a good thing.”
Hite finished with 14 points, nine of which came in the final frame, while Strange finished with eight and McKinney six. Oak Hill finished the game 15-of-23 from the field, while holding Western to 16 field goals on 45 attempts.
Oak Hill will be back in action this coming Tuesday in the annual Grant Four tournament, where they will face off against undefeated Madison-Grant in their semifinal contest.
“We are going to have to continue to improve over the next week-and-a-half to put ourselves in a position to compete with Madison-Grant,” Renbarger said. “They can score in bunches. They are playing exceptionally hard, and Coach Cherry is establishing a culture and they are playing to it. We are going to have to continue to improve to give ourselves a fighter’s chance.”
