Wednesday, March 22, 2017

A season of firsts

The Oran High School boys' and girls' basketball team reached new highs this year.

The Lady Eagles won their district tournament for a fourth straight year but were able to advance past the sectional game for the first time in school history.  Oran made it all the way to the final four but they were unable to post a victory in Columbia and finished 4th in class 2.  They ended their season with a 27-5 record, which is the most wins ever for the program.

They won first place in the Lady Devil Invitational for the second year in a row.  The won the title in the Delta New Year's tournament for the first time by defeating Saxony Lutheran for the first time in 5 years.  They have won two consecutive Scott-Mississippi Conference Tournaments and regular season titles.  They have been winners in their last 15 conference games dating back to 2015.

Leah Cauble was named all-state for the second year in a row, all-district and was the conference player of the year.  Jessie Long and Kaylee Payne were named all-district and all-conference.  Brianna Stause was named to the all-district team.

Cauble now has the 4th most points scored in a season with 1058 and is number 10 in free
throws made in a season with 237.  Also, notable is that last year she set the 3rd highest mark for points and points per game for freshmen at 689 and 25.52 respectively.  This year she led the Lady Eagles 33.1 ppg scoring clip, 4 assists per game.  She also led the team with 67 made 3 point field goals. She had 4.8 rebounds per game.

Payne finished her freshman campaign with a 10.8 scoring average.  She had 4.9 rebounds a game and dished out 3 assists per contest.

Long also finished the season averaging in double-digit scoring with 10.1 ppg and grabbed a team-high 7.6 rebounds.

Stause, the teams' lone senior hit for 7.5 ppg and Claire Ramsey scored 3.9 a game.

Cauble, Payne, Long, Stause and Ramsey played in all 32 games

Kenzie Graviett played in 30 and averaged 2.9 ppg.  Katelyn Streeter saw action in 19 and scored 2.4.  Madison Ramsey got in 18 games and scored 2.7.

As a team, they averaged 71 points per game, while allowing only 43.

Reflecting on the season, Coach Ethan Evans said, "I can't say enough about the awesome jobs both our JV and Varsity girls did this season."

"Our JV girls got all kinds of experience and were able to improve throughout the season. They showed great heart and determination this year, especially winning the Conference tournament with only 5 players."

"Wow, what an awesome season our varsity had this year! A school record for wins, another district championship, a win over Saxony in the Delta Tournament, and a first-ever trip to the final 4. Although we came up short at state I am happy the girls were able to get some exposure to the big time. With the girls we have back we hope to make it back to the state championships once again next year."

Oran only graduates 1 and will return 4 starters and the first 3 off the bench.

For the boys,  it was also a season of great accomplishments.  For the first time since 1969, the Eagles advanced to the state championship game and for the first time ever they came away victorious.

Sophomore Jacob Shoemaker scored 33 points in the title game to lead the Eagles.  His 19 free throw attempts place him tied at number 6 in that category and his 16 made places him 5th all time in the final four single-game record book.  The 15 he made in the fourth period ranks him 2nd all-time in free throws made in a quarter.

Max Priggel was named the all-state class 2 player of the year, all-district and all-conference player of the year.  Shoemaker was named all-state, all-district and all-conference.  Head Coach Joe Shoemaker was named the Class 2 Coach of the Year.

Priggel led the team with a 19.7 scoring average, he hit 75 three-point field goals and 96 free throws, all tops.  Shoemaker averaged 16.2 a game, was 2nd with 61 treys and 88 free throws.  He was the top rebounder with 6.6 a game.  Cole Priggel finished with at 10.1 ppg.  Layne Johnson just missed double-digits.  He scored 9.9 a game.  Johnson was tops with 3.2 assists per game and 2nd with 6.5 boards per contest.

The Eagles averaged 65.8 points per game while allowing 50.9.

Coach Joe Shoemaker said, "First I want to thank the community and school for all of the support they gave us this year."

Also, "I was very proud of the never give up attitude that the team developed this season.  This team was very unselfish and never cared about individual glory but only worried about what was best for the team.  We battled through injury and sickness for the first part of the year and then never lost a game when we had everyone available."

"I want to thank my seniors for the time and effort that gave over their careers and I hope they have learned something that will help them in their futures. I hope everyone else's memories are as good as mine."

Oran loses Max Priggel, Wyatt Kinney and Luke Barnes to graduation.



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