Oakwood Lady Eagles finish as ISC runners-up
The Oakwood Christian Middle School Lady Eagles’ quest for an ISC tournament championship came to an end last Monday as they had to settle for second place, following a 27-21 loss to Grace Baptist Academy of Chattanooga.
Playing at St. Jude School in north Chattanooga, OCA was hitting early on as they opened up a four-point lead midway through the first quarter before finishing the period nursing a slim 9-7 lead.
Oakwood’s field goal shooting would start cooling off in the second period, but airtight defense would keep them in front throughout most of the quarter. However, the Golden Eagles would tie things up with 2:30 left before halftime before taking their first lead of the game, 13-11, on a steal and a layup by Taylor Adams 35 seconds later. Adams would lead Grace with six firsthalf points.
Points would continue to be tough to come by for both teams in the third quarter. Oakwood’s Cheyenne Simpson would hit a big 3-pointer in the period, but Adams would add a threeball for Grace, who held a 22-16 lead at the end of the quarter.
The Golden Eagles would stretch out their lead to nine, 25-16, with four minutes to play, but Oakwood wasn’t finished just yet. Mana Gilchrist connected on a drive to the hoop and later added a 3-pointer of her own with 2:23 to go and Grace’s lead was suddenly sliced to four.
Unfortunately, it would be the last points of the night for the Lady Eagles as the shots simply stopped falling in the final 120 seconds.
Oakwood had to resort to fouling to stop the clock and put Grace on the line, but needing to commit four fouls to put Grace in the bonus, nearly all of the clock would be used up before Oakwood’s offense could get the ball back.
Grace would tack on the final two points late to seal the victory.
Adams led the Golden Eagles with nine points, followed by Savannah Engelbrecht with six. Engelbrecht would later be named as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
Gilchrist and Simpson shared team- high honors with nine points each for OCA, followed by two from Allie Dortch and one by Elizabeth Potthast. Gilchrist, Simpson and Dortch were later named to the Girls’ All-tournament Team.
St. Jude’s won the earlier boys’ championship game with a 30-17 win over Grace. The Saints led 24-17 after three quarters and held the Golden Eagles scoreless in the final period.
Tomo Gilchrist and Garrett Dempsey were named to the Boys’ All-tournament Team from Oakwood.