Oakwood girls hold off Grace
The Oakwood Christian Lady Eagles, in search of a confidencebuilding win with the region tournament approaching, got one in Chickamauga last Monday night with a very hard-fought 46-41 decision over Grace Baptist Academy from Chattanooga.
It was Oakwood’s second fivepoint win over Grace this season.
OCA threatened to blow out the visiting Lady Eagles early, jumping out to a 10-4 lead halfway through the first quarter and adding to it the rest of the period. Cheyenne Simpson beat the buzzer with a runner in the lane to give her team an 18-5 lead after the first eight minutes.
Oakwood added to its lead to start the second quarter, but Grace would begin to right the ship in the second half of the second quarter. A pair of 3-pointers highlighted a 12-0 run that saw the visitors tie the score at 23 with 1:10 left before halftime.
But nice team passing led to a bucket by Chloe Brodie with 18 seconds left on the clock and OCA was able to forge a two-point lead going into the locker room.
The defensive intensity picked up in the third quarter as both teams combined for just 12 points. However, half of those points came on back-to-back threes by Mana Gilchrist and Oakwood took a 33-27 advantage into the fourth.
An offensive rebound by Janel Buckels resulted in a 3-point play at the 6:50 mark and Oakwood’s lead grew to 11, but Grace began to chip away at the deficit over the next few minutes.
A three by Grace’s Savannah Engelbrecht with 1:31 to go was followed up by a drive to the basket by Gabby Adams and the Oakwood lead was just two with a minute to play. However, Brodie hit a free throw with 51 seconds to go and the defense took over for the home team.
Gilchrist came up with a big block with 40 seconds left and Brodie grabbed a huge defensive board with 9.2 ticks left on the clock. Drawing a foul in the process, she made 1 of 2 free throws to push the lead back to four before one final steal by Gilchrist at midcourt finally sealed the victory.
Gilchrist had 20 points, including three 3-pointers and a 7 of 9 performance at the free throw line. The junior also pulled down 11 rebounds and collected four steals and three assists. Brodie went for 15 points, nine coming in the decisive fourth quarter, to go with a dozen boards and three steals.
Trinity Hall had six points, followed by Buckles with three points and six rebounds. Simpson finished the scoring with two.
Adams led Grace with 16 points in Engelbrecht added 11.
GRACE ACADEMY BOYS 46, OAKWOOD 36
The second game of the night saw the Eagles from Chickamauga trail 10-5 after low-scoring first period, but they were able to stay within striking distance going into halftime.
A 3-pointer by Joseph Dawson with just under two minutes to go in the half pulled them to within a bucket at 18-16. However, Grace scored seven unanswered points in the last 90 seconds to take a 2516 lead at the break.
Grace led 35-23 at the end of the third quarter, but Oakwood refused to go away quietly. A fastbreak lay-up by Tomo Gilchrist with 3:40 to go cut the gap down to eight points, but they would get no closer as the visitors from Chattanooga connected on four late free throws to help salt away the win.
Eli Ibrahim had 21 points for Grace, followed by Avery Ivenson with 13.
Gilchrist had 12 points for OCA, followed by Garrett Dempsey with eight, Dawson with seven and Ryan Phillips with five. Three points from Hunter Hickman and one by Isaiah Staven completed the scoring.