The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats won the Region 2-AAA championship for the second year in a row on Wednesday, crushing Hardin Valley 71-42 in their best overall game. Here are photos by Luther Simmons. [Read more…]
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The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats won the Region 2-AAA championship for the second year in a row on Wednesday, crushing Hardin Valley 71-42 in their best overall game. Here are photos by Luther Simmons. [Read more…]
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Note: This story was updated at 10:15 a.m.
The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats won the Region 2-AAA championship for the second year in a row on Wednesday, crushing Hardin Valley 71-42. Oak Ridge Coach Paige Redman said it was the best overall game she’s seen the girls play.
“This game showed me a lot about them from start to finish on both ends of the court,” Redman said. “We played really, really well.”
The Lady Wildcats (29-3) had at least 15 steals, and they scored on eight of those. Oak Ridge had 25 points off of turnovers, including steals. Some of those turnovers led to three-point shots, some to layups, and still others to two-point plays converted into three-point plays because of Hardin Valley fouls.
Oak Ridge also had at least a half-dozen feeds in the paint for a basket, sometimes from one player standing near the free throw line to another cutting inside toward the basket when Hardin Valley guards came out too far.
“Tonight they played basketball,” Redman said of her team. “It was the best overall game I’ve seen them play.” [Read more…]
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Two steals, a layup, and a free throw in the final minute helped Oak Ridge beat William Blount by one point, 48-47, in a Region 2-AAA semifinal game that came down to the final few seconds on Monday. Here are photos by Luther Simmons. [Read more…]
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Two steals, a layup, and a free throw in the final minute helped Oak Ridge beat William Blount by one point, 48-47, in a regional semifinal game that came down to the final few seconds on Monday.
The Lady Governors led by two points late in the Region 2-AAA semifinal elimination game, Oak Ridge Coach Paige Redman said. But a steal by Lady Wildcats senior Courtney Ellison led to a tying layup by junior Mykia Dowdell.
Then, another Oak Ridge steal led to a William Blount foul and two free throws by Lady Wildcats sophomore Jada Guinn. She missed the first one but hit the second, Redman said. That gave the Lady Wildcats (28-3) a one-point lead with about half a minute remaining.
With just over two seconds to go, Oak Ridge got the basketball. But the Lady Wildcats turned it over with about 1.3 seconds remaining. When the Lady Governors threw it in, Dowdell knocked it out of bounds. The clock ticked down to 0.3 seconds. That wasn’t enough time for William Blount (21-11) to get the ball in bounds and possibly make a game-winning basket. After being nervous—the Lady Governors led 47-45 with 2:14 remaining—Oak Ridge fans were jubilant.
“Wow!” said Stephanie Thompson, Oak Ridge High School assistant principal. “What a win for the Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats!” [Read more…]
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AJ Cucksey, a six-year-old cancer survivor, met two of Oak Ridge’s best athletes—junior Destiny Kassner and senior Tee Higgins, both basketball players—during Region 2-AAA quarterfinal games at Wildcat Arena this past weekend.
AJ was at the Friday night game, when Destiny helped the Lady Wildcats beat Bearden in a regional tournament quarterfinal. He was back again on Saturday, when Tee helped the Wildcats in a win over West, also in a quarterfinal game.
Here are photos from AJ at the basketball games, and before. [Read more…]
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The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats eliminated Bearden 62-56 in a Region 2-AAA quarterfinal game at home on Friday, despite a high-scoring second-half rally by the Lady Bulldogs.
After scoring only 15 points in the first half, the Bearden girls scored 41 in the second, narrowing an Oak Ridge lead of 24 points in the third quarter to three points late in the fourth.
“It was a fun ball game,” Oak Ridge Coach Paige Redman said. “They did not back down. They did not quit…They went on a great run. We managed to contain it.”
Bearden (24-4) struggled to make three-point shots in the first three quarters. They made only two, both by junior Trinity Lee. That changed in the fourth quarter, when Lee hit four. She led the Lady Bulldogs with 25 points and had 17 of Bearden’s 27 points in the final quarter. She had all six of Bearden’s three-point shots.
Oak Ridge (27-3) was led by sophomore guard Jada Guinn with 32 points, a game high and career high. Like Lee, Guinn also made six three-point shots. She knocked down four in the second quarter alone. [Read more…]