Wildcats take second in Dale Burns Basketball Classic
Giles hits double-digits for the Cats in four of five Bahama tournament games
A Thanksgiving trip to the Bahamas proved to be a learning experience for the Oak Ridge High School boys basketball team.
The Wildcats reached Saturday’s championship game of the Dale Burns Basketball Classic, where they came up on the short end of a 45-44 decision against Columbia High School from the Atlanta area.
Oak Ridge (7-1) opened a 20-13 lead in the first quarter of the title tilt, and had a 41-34 advantage just past the midway point of the fourth frame, but the Wildcats let the lead and the game get away.
“Anytime you have a seven-point lead with under four minutes to go and you don’t win, that’s not good,” Oak Ridge Coach Aaron Green said. “But that’s why you try to put your kids in as many situations like that as you can.
“We didn’t rebound well, and our defense wasn’t good,” he said. “We had a couple of lapses and they made some three-pointers, but I think we can definitely learn from it.”
Garrett Giles led Oak Ridge with 13 points against Columbia. Kaden Brightharp added 11, while Ray’Quan Watson and Cooper Williams finished with seven points each for the Wildcats, who led 34-32 at halftime, but scored just 10 points over the final 16 minutes of the contest.
Oak Ridge advanced to the tournament championshipgame with a 53-45 win over Tabernacle Baptist Academy, a private school in the Bahamas, on Saturday morning.
Despite the contest being a relatively low-scoring game, the Wildcats had three players post double figures in the scoring column.
Brennen Scott led the way with 12 points. Giles and Williams added 10 points each, and Brightharp finished with nine.
Green said his team played well defensively.
“We saw some good teams from Atlanta and from the Bahamas and against those kinds of teams, it’s a little harder to put the ball through the net,” he said. “I thought we played pretty good defense throughout the tournament.
“Those teams were probably some of the most-athletic teams that we’ll see all year.”
On Friday, the Wildcats outlasted Southwest DeKalb County 60-58 behind 17 points from Giles and 14 from Watson. Brightharp had nine and Scott finished with seven.
ORHS celebrated Thanksgiving by outscoring Jonesboro (Georgia) 45-43, as Giles led its offensive attack with 14 points. Scott added nine. Williams finished with eight and Watson had six.
Oak Ridge opened tournament play on Wednesday, Nov. 22, with a 58-44 victory over Sunland Baptist.
Williams had 17 points in the tournament opener, while Brightharp scored 16.
Oak Ridge, which returned home Sunday, will have the entire week off before traveling to face rival Powell on Dec. 5 at the Jeff Hunter Gymnasium in a District 3-4A game.
The Panthers have won their first three games in 2023-24, and have victories over Clinton and Anderson County in early-season contests.
“Powell is always tough, and that’s a tough place to play,” Green said. “But we’ll have some time to get ready for them.”