Eagles blow past Blue Jays

The Oran High School girls varsity basketball team picked up its 19th straight regular-season conference victory by defeating the visiting Charleston Blue Jays last night 83-49, that featured a rousing edition of the Star Spangled Banner performed by Jays' head coach Dollette Hall. There was no junior varsity game.

The Eagles came out on fire,  They scored the first 10 points of the game during the first two minutes.  They led 30-12 at the end of period number one.  After that, they played well in spurts.

Coach Ethan Evans said, "I thought the girls came out on fire in the 1st quarter. We knocked down some open shots against their zone and played decent defense. After that, they went to a box and we got stagnant both offensively and defensively. We got after it again in the second half and started scoring again. We rebounded well offensively but need to do a better job on the defensive end."

At halftime, Oran led 45-28.

During the third quarter, with 3:51 remaining, The Blue Jays had cut the deficit to 12,  54-42.  But, after an Eagle timeout, Oran went on a 13-0 run to close out the frame and to put the game out of reach.

The Eagles opened the final period on an 8-2 run to invoke the turbo-clock in the first two minutes, up 75-44 and eventually won by 34.

Leah Cauble led all scorers with 45 (23 of which came in the first eight minutes), she was 5 of 8 from beyond the arc.  Cauble had eight rebounds, five steals and four assists, as well.  Jessie Long finished with 21 points and seven rebounds.  Kaylee Payne bounced back from her injury on Saturday to notch a double-double with 12 points and 11 boards.  She also had five steals and four assists.

Claire Ramsey hit a trey for her three points.  She also had five rebounds and three assists.  Katelyn Streeter had two points and three rebounds.  Katie Webb did not score but grabbed four rebounds and dished out three assists.

Oran hit 60% of its shots from inside the arc (29-48) thanks in large part due to the number of turnovers that they created that led to layups.  From beyond, they hit 6 of 23 for 26%.  At the free throw line, they were 7 of 14 for 50%.

The varsity girls improved their record to 4-0 in league play and 14-3 overall.

They will be back in action on Monday when they host Woodland.  The varsity game will begin at 6 pm and be followed by two quarters of junior varsity action.