Boys Basketball 12-09 vs Burlington

At home for the first time this season, the Wildcats played against Burlington-Edison in front of a loud crowd in the OHHS gym on December 9th.
The freshman game was by far the most exciting. With less than 4 minutes to go in the game, Oak Harbor held a 44-40 lead, but a nice shot by the Tigers and some free throws saw the advantage turned to Burlington 45-44. Oak Harbor was able to hit a free throw of their own with 1:16 left to tie it at 45. The two teams went up and down the court for the next 67 seconds, with neither scoring. An Oak Harbor foul send the Tigers to the line for a 1-1, but the shooter missed the first one and after securing the ball, the Wildcats called timeout with just 9 seconds left. The ball was inbounded from mid-court, and as Kevawn Brooks was working his was inside under the basket, he was fouled, with just 1 second left, and the score still 45-45. Brooks then hit both ends of the 1-1, and time ran out before the Tigers could get a shot off. Brooks was the lead scorer with 16 points, 10 of them in the 2nd half. Edward Denmon hit for 9 and Josiah Miller for 8. Others scoring were Michael Mack, Patrick Bell, Ben Muyers, Matt Burgoyne and Elias Whitefoot.
The JV game started out looking good, especially on defense. Halfway through the first period it was 2-0 Oak Harbor, and the team built the lead to 8-3 with about a minute and a half to go, and finished the period leading 8-5. Burlington lit a fire under their offense in the 2nd period, scoring 18 points. Halfway through the 2nd period, the ‘Cats had not scored but by the end of the period added 7 points to their score. The half ended with the Wildcats down 23-15. However, the offense fell flat in the 3rd and the boys scored only 2 points against 9 for the Tigers. The 4th started with Burlington leading 32-17, and while the Wildcats were able to find the basket again, they couldn’t make up any ground, and finished the game on the short end of a 42-27 score.
Varsity was close for most of the game. The Wildcats started out down 4-0, but fought back to tie the game at 6 halfway through the first after a nice layin by Josh Fikse. Burlington got the lead back, building it to 13-6 with a minute and a half in the first, but two quick baskets by Rashaad Smith and Mike Washington brought Oak Harbor to within three, 13-10, at the end of the 1st period. The Wildcats continued to close the gap, and took a 1-poine lead, 14-13 on a bucket by Smith with 7:05 in the 2nd. That lead held for just under a minute when Burlington re-took the lead. Oak Harbor stayed within a point or two until, with 4 minutes left in the half, Smith hit a pair of free throws to take the lead again. Burlington didn’t let it last long, and went on to lead at the half 28-24.
In the 2nd half, the ‘Cats let Burlington build their lead to eight, 26-28 with just under 5 minutes in the 3rd, but again Oak Harbor clawed back. With just 1:33 left in the 3rd, Denzel Hardin got fouled on his shot for the ‘and one’, closing the score to 41-38, then Beaux Haley hit a 3 from right in front of his bench with just 30 seconds left, and the period ended in a 41-41 tie. Opening the fourth, Jay Stout hit a FT for a 42-41 lead, but the Tigers took advantage of several Oak Harbor passing errors to build a 55-43 lead with just over 3 minutes to play. The Wildcats didn’t give up, as Mike Washington hit a 3 and Smith adding two more to make it 55-48, but that’s as close as it would get as Burlington went on to win 64-55.

A total of 49 images of the Freshman, JV and Varsity games are posted HERE.

Zac Cole went down hard during a rebound attempt, and he asked that a clip of the fall be posted. You can see that clip, along with 5 others of the JV and Varsity games by clicking HERE.