There’s an old saying, “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger” and after a brutal four day stretch the Oak Hill Warriors were able to escape the Roy Stanley Memorial Shootout with an overtime win over the Christ School by the score of 71-63. It was the 3rd game against nationally ranked teams in four days for the Warriors. Oak Hill started the week with a national showdown with Arlington Country Day in Beckley, West Virginia on Wednesday night. The Warriors were victorious with a 77-52 win. The team then traveled to Bristol, Virginia to play undefeated West Oak Academy on Friday night. West Oak Academy featured several high major prospects and the Warriors were able to win by the score of 93-73. Unfortunately, for the Warriors they had to travel back to Mouth of Wilson since they had school on Saturday before making the trip to Salem, Virginia to play Christ School in the finale of the Roy Stanley Memorial Shootout.
There were two major story lines for the number one ranked Oak Hill Warriors. First of all, SG D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera simply put together two of the best back to back performances of the season. On Friday night, Smith-Rivera scored 29 points going 10-14 from the floor (4-4 from the 3 point line) and a perfect 5-5 from the free throw line. On Saturday night, he was sensational once again as he tallied 37 points with 11 of them coming in the overtime period. Smith-Rivera went 11-19 from the floor (2-5 from the 3 point line) and 13-15 from the free throw line. He also had 3 rebounds and had 5 steals while dishing out 3 assists. Without question, Smith-Rivera two game performances against West Oak Academy and the Christ School were simply spectacular.
The next story line was the play of PG Tyler Lewis. Lewis scored 10 points Friday night and dished out 7 assists and on Saturday night he had 8 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 big steals down the stretch for Oak Hill. While these are modest numbers for Lewis, he battled and fought through the weekend with stomach virus. Going into Saturday’s game against Christ School, he was up the entire night throwing up and spent the majority of Saturday morning in the school infirmary and was unable to eat anything in the past 24 hours. Prior to the Saturday night game, Lewis had less than two hours of sleep and was still sick with a fever and was questionable for the game. Jordan Adams of Oak Hill finished with 14 points and collected 9 rebounds. He also had 2 steals and dished out 2 assists. Others that got into the scoring column were Damien Wilson and Darion Clark with 4 points each while Montarius Hall and AJ Hammons tallied 2 points. Hammons was also nursing an ankle injury and was not 100% and did not have the same mobility on both ends of the court.
For Christ School, the story line was the play of 6’6 junior PF Will Weeks and 6’5 sophomore WF Josh Level. Weeks finished with 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while Level finished with 14 points but knocked down key three pointers during the last minutes of the game when the Greenies of Christ School trailed Oak Hill 57-45. In addition, Jerome Hairston also enjoyed a solid game with 12 points while Alabama commit Shannon Hale finished with 8 points. Weeks is a strong, active and aggressive power forward and his inside play was key for Christ School throughout the game. His play was impressive and should see his stock continue to climb. More importantly, he plays the game with passion and purpose and his work ethic on the court was impressive. Sophomore Josh Level continues to make monumental strides in his game. Level has been known as an elite level athlete with his explosive leaping ability, but he has worked extremely hard on his perimeter game and his three pointers were big time in the rally for Christ School. If he continues to improve in the next two years as he as in the past year, high major schools will be knocking on his door. Jerome Hairston is a strong and aggressive guard that is a major steal for Towson State.
In overtime, it was the Smith-Rivera show as he used his size and strength to score all 11 points for Oak Hill and the Greenies had no answer for him. He used a vast arsenal of offensive moves either to score or get fouled and he was almost automatic from the free throw line.
In the game Friday night against West Oak Academy, there were several players that deserve mentioning for the team from Florida. 6’6 sophomore Boubacar Moungoro is one of the elite level athletes in the 2014 class. He finished with 15 points against Oak Hill but he has a nice blend of elite level athleticism combined with a nice skill set that will make him a high priority of high major schools. He is extremely long and explosive and is absolutely fantastic in transition. 6’9 junior Demba Konate finished with 15 points and already has an offer from Florida according to Coach Tony Atkins. Konate is a strong and active rebounder and is relentless on the boards. He is quick off his feet and will be a player to watch in the 2013 class nationally. 6’2 senior SG Sheldon Hagigal (Cincinnati) chipped in 17 points while 6’5 Kedar Edwards (South Carolina signee) chipped in 15 points.
Oak Hill is now 35-0 for the season and will resume action this week as they play Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.