Boys fall to East Prairie (again)

For the fourth straight time, the Oran High School boys varsity basketball team came up just short against the East Prairie Eagles.  The most recent was last night during the quarterfinal round of the Scott-Mississippi Conference tournament at Kelly High School.  Oran lost 67-63.

For the second time this season, our Eagles held a significant lead in the second-half but couldn't hold on.

Last night, Oran was down by 2 after 1, 14-12.  East Prairie, the two-seed, expanded the margin to 11 about half way through the second before Oran cut it to four at the break, 31-27.

Oran went on a run of its own in the third quarter, outscoring East Prairie 25-12 to take a nine-point lead, 51-42, into the final frame.

But that lead was not enough as East Prairie roared back taking the final 8 minutes 25-12.

Oran coach Joe Shoemaker said,  "We didn't play very smart at times and we need to do a better job of that.  Hopefully tonight we will."

Max Priggel led four Eagles in double-figures with 21.  He hit three shots from beyond the arc.  Layne Johnson and Jacob Shoemaker both added 14 and both hit 2 treys.  Cole Priggel knocked in 10.  Wyatt Kinney rounded out the scoring with 4 points.

The big difference was at the line where Oran hit 8-11 for 73% while East Prairie hit 15-22 (68%).  Oran was whistled for 21 fouls and East Prairie 12.  Some of those did come late as Oran tried to aggressively force turnovers.

Earlier, on December 13, Oran led East Prairie most of the way at home and was up by 9 with under four minutes remaining and couldn't hold on, losing that one 78-77.

Last year, they lost on the road 54-53 and at Scott City during the conference tournament, 62-59.

Oran will try to rebound from the tough loss this evening at 5:15 when they play in the third-place game against Scott City for the third time this season.  The Eagles, 8-7 have defeated the fourth-seeded Rams (10-8) in both previous meetings.