Oak Hill dominant once again in rout of Wabash

Heading into last Tuesday’s game with the Wabash Apaches, the Oak Hill Golden Eagles have played nearly flawless basketball over the past month.

Their offense has been clicking on all cylinders, as the combination of Taylor Westgate, Adrianna Trexler, and an ever-improving Jenessa Hasty have helped lead an effective Oak Hill attack.

But it has been their defense that has been even more impressive.

Oak Hill came into the contest averaging just over 26 points allowed per game, second-fewest in the state of Indiana.

Not just Grant County, not just Class 2A, but the entire state, and on Tuesday, their vaunted defensive pressure was on full display once again.

Three Golden Eagles finished in double figures, the defense forced 31 turnovers, and Oak Hill won their tenth straight contest with a dominant 62-20 victory over the Apaches.

Against Mississinewa in their previous contest, the Golden Eagles held the Indians scoreless for 12 minutes – a quarter and a half.

They accomplished the same feat against Wabash.

Oak Hill held the Apaches to 0-for-6 shooting and forced a whopping 11 turnovers in the opening quarter, throwing Wabash’s offense out of sync almost from the beginning.

The Golden Eagles increased their lead to 21-0 halfway through the second quarter before the Apaches finally got on the scoreboard with two free throws from Hope Unger. Those were the only points that Wabash scored in the first half.

Despite the Golden Eagles turning the ball over 13 times in the first 16 minutes, their defense bailed them out. Wabash finished 0-for-13 in the opening two quarters and turned the ball over 21 times.

“It’s my whole coaching philosophy,” Oak Hill Head Coach Todd Law said. “You can control things that you can control. You can always play hard, you can always play good defense, and you can always rebound. If you do those things, you can overcome a bad half. We shot it great – we just didn’t get many shot attempts because we were throwing it to them the whole time.”

Oak Hill kept the pedal to the metal after halftime, building a 48-15 lead after three quarters of play. The Wabash offense was much better in the third period, shooting five-for-10 from the field, but the game was already well out of reach.

The Golden Eagles’ defense locked it back down in the final frame, allowing just five points the rest of the contest on the way to their 42-point victory. It was their third straight game in which they allowed 27 or fewer points from their opposition.

“They’ve embraced [defense] for three years,” Law said. “They broke the school record – our seniors did – [when] they were sophomores [for] defensive average for the season. They broke it again last year, and they are on pace to break it again this year. They definitely buy into defense.”

Another key factor in Oak Hill’s triumph on Tuesday, and in their last three contests, has been their ball facilitation. They just simply do not take bad shots, passing the ball around the floor until they find the best scoring opportunity.

“The thing that I like about where we’ve headed in the last three games is we’ve got them playing together [and] sharing the basketball,” Law said. “Two games ago, we assisted on 25 of 35 makes. Last game, it was 16 of 22. Tonight, it was 20 out of 26. They are doing a great job of finding the open girl and not just taking the first available shot. That is really encouraging for me to see.”

As a team, the Golden Eagles shot 26-of-47 from the field, which included a six-of-15 mark from the perimeter.

Trexler, after a tough outing against Mississinewa, rebounded nicely against Wabash, leading the Golden Eagles with 17 points on 50 percent shooting from the floor. Westgate could not be stopped underneath the basket, scoring 15 points and bringing down six rebounds, four of which were offensive.

Hasty played her best offensive game of the season, scoring 14 points , shooting 60 percent from the field, and leading the team with four assists.

“I thought her shot looked good,” Law said of Hasty. “She had some lift on the ball, and the big thing was she took good shots. Most of those were perimeter jumpshots, too, so that was very good to see. That’s going to do nothing but boost her confidence.”

While it was another big win, it was a not a perfect game by Oak Hill, who finished with 19 turnovers. With several big contests on the horizon, Law is looking for that area to improve dramatically going forward.

“Obviously, we need to learn how to take care of the ball consistently,” Law said. “That’s what we are not doing. We’ll have a game where we’ve only got five, six, seven turnovers, and then we’ll turn around like tonight and have 19 or 20. We just cannot do that. Having a game with 19-20 turnovers is concerning, so that’s going to be our biggest area [of] focus right now.”

Kiley Stone led the Apaches with eight points on three-of-four shooting, while Unger, Alivia Short, Maya Benysh, Kaylee Graf, Tabatha Wagner, and Mariah Wyatt each scored two.

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