Johnson leads Eagles into 2nd round of Christmas tournament

The Oran Eagles had one last present under the tree that they opened last night.  Cole Priggel returned to action for the first time since the championship game of the O.I.T. on December 4th.

Priggel, who had been suffering from a high ankle sprain, got the start and put in 16 points as he helped spark what had been a noticeably stagnant Eagle offense.  But the star on top of that tree was Layne Johnson, who scored a career-high 33 points.  He hit five three's for an Oran team that led 19-10 after one and expanded it to 44-18 at the half over the Class 3 Woodland Cardinals as they cruised to a mercy-rule fourth quarter running clock 78-38 victory giving them a matchup with 4th-seeded Jackson.  The five-seeded Eagles will take on the Class 5 Indians in tonight's finale at 9 pm.

Coach Joe Shoemaker said, "We were able to speed them up with the press especially in the second quarter. I didn’t think we shot particularly well to start the game and didn’t pass it as well as we normally do but developed more rhythm as time passed. Layne shot the best he has all year and hopefully, he continues to shoot well. We will have to continue to improve our half-court defense as it has a ways to go. We will have to focus on blocking out and rebounding tomorrow [tonight] against a much bigger Jackson team."

Besides Johnson and Priggel, Jacob Shoemaker also reached double-digits with 13.  He hit one shot beyond the arc.

Todd Priggel finished with four points, as did Bradley Brooks.  Tyson Goodale scored three.   Drew Reischman and Peyton Mcvay had two each.  Calen Reed added a free throw.

The Eagles finished 10 of 16 from the line for 63%.

They improved their record to 6-1.

For complete tournament coverage:  www.semoball.com

****Note:  last night's 9pm game actually got started about 8:30.