Oak Hill vs. Paul VI (Classic I Chick-Fil-A Championship Game)

Oak Hill entered the contest with a 20-0 record against a very well coached and talented team Paul VI from Fairfax, Virgina. The big storyline would be the reaction from the Oak Hill team after dodging a big time bullet on Wednesday night. This time around, Oak Hill played with passion and emotion that had been missing since their win over Miller Grove on ESPN last Thursday night. Paul VI entered the contest with a perfect 10-0 record and was quickly moving into the national polls for their stellar play. That being said, Oak Hill led from start to finish and won easily by the score of 76-55.

Oak Hill once again enjoyed a balanced attack, but it was the play of PG Tyler Lewis that got Oak Hill off to a tremendous start as he dished out a team high 15 assists and broke the Chick-Fil-A single game assist record. D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera led the team in scoring with 17 points going 6-8 from the floor and 3-3 from the 3 point line. He also went 2-2 from the free throw line and his shot was accurate and deadly for the game. Smith-Rivera also grabbed 5 rebounds and dished out 1 assist. Darion Clark looked extremely good since he was coming off an ankle injury and knocked in 16 points for the game going 6-7 from the floor with many of them coming off alley oop passes from Lewis. Clark also went 4-4 from the free throw line and had 1 rebound for the Warriors. Jordan Adams tallied 12 points going 4-14 from the floor but regained his touch from the 3 point line going 3-6. Adams had 4 rebounds and dished out 3 assists. Montarius Hall scored 8 points going 4-5 from the floor but had a team high 6 rebounds. RJ Curington chipped in 8 points going 4-7 from the field and collected 2 rebounds. Tyler Lewis was the team facilitator as he dished out a team high 15 assists and scored 6 points going 3-6 from the floor.

Others that got into the scoring action were Ike Iroegbu with 3 while Jordan Tebbutt, Damien Wilson, and AJ Hammons all scored 2 apiece.

6’3 Junior WG Stanford Robinson led the way for Paul VI with 16 points going 8-17 from the floor and 0-4 from the 3 point line. He also collected 4 rebounds. Robinson is an excellent athletic WG that loves to attack the basket. 6’6 Senior WG Coleman Johnson chipped in 14 points going 7-12 from the floor. Sharpshooter Patrick Holloway had an off night with 5 points going 1-9 from the floor. 6’7 Freshman Marcus Derrickson chipped in 8 points on 4-7 shooting, but looked impressive and confidence on the floor.

Oak Hill shot 31-53 from the floor for an impressive 59% while Paul VI went 24-59 for the game for 40%. Oak Hill went regained some of its confidence back from the 3 point line going 7-15 for 47% while Paul VI only managed a dismal 2-16 for 12%. Oak Hill stifling defense deserves a lot of credit as they played one of its better games on the defensive side of the ball. Oak Hill also won the battle of the boards with a 34 to 24 margin. Oak Hill played great team basketball and had 21 assists for the game compared to 12 for Paul VI.

Oak Hill is now 21-0 for the season and will travel to Portland, Oregon to participate in the Les Schwab Invitational December 27-30^th.

ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM

Classic I MVP:  D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera (Oak Hill)

Classic I All-Tournament Team:  Will Weeks (Christ School), Marcus Stroman (Keenan), Stan Robinson (Paul VI), Jordan Adams (Oak Hill), and Tyler Lewis (Oak Hill)

 Oak Hill vs. Keenan 67 Chick-Fil-A Semi-Final Game

On paper, the Oak Hill matchup against South Carolina 2A should have been a no contest. That being said, the game is played on the basketball court and not on paper. While many thought this would be an easy road to the finals, I was a little more apprehensive concerning the W.J. Kennan team. To start with, Kennan has won back to back South Carolina state championships and was the tournament’s runner-up to powerful United Faith last year and returned the majority of its team. The story line here is when you have a team down by 12 at halftime, you simply can’t afford to allow the home team with the over whelming crowd support to stay in the game. The longer they stick around, the confidence factor continues to grow and that was simply the case. While Oak Hill dodged a bullet and escaped with a 68-67 victory, it is games like this that helps define a team.

Oak Hill was led by senior PG Tyler Lewis with 18 points going 6-13 from the floor and 5-6 from the free throw line. Lewis also dished out 7 assists and grabbed 4 rebounds while only committing 1 turnover for the game. Without question, Lewis made some key baskets down the stretch to help pad the necessary lead for the win. D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera chipped in 17 points going 6-14 from the floor and 3-4 from the free throw line. Smith-Rivera had 3 rebounds and 2 assists. Jordan Adams scored 14 points going 6-13 from the floor and went 2-2 from the free throw line. Adams collected 6 rebounds and dished out 3 assists. Unfortunately, Smith-Rivera and Adams committed 7 turnovers collectively with the majority coming in the second half that hurt the Warriors during Keenan’s tremendous and exciting comeback. Others that contributed to the scoring were as follows: Damien Wilson 6 points, RJ Curington & Montarius Hall with 4 points, Darion Clark 3 points & 5 rebounds, and Jordan Tebbutt with 2 points.

For Keenam, the star was sophomore Marcus Stroman who finished with 23 points and 7 assists. He went 7-15 from the floor and a perfect 7-7 from the free throw line. Senior WG Erick Tisdale chipped in 17 points going 8-14 from the floor and 1-3 from the free throw line. Senior WF Quinton Johnson chipped in 12 points and 6 rebounds as Senior WG Trey Stroman finished with 11 points and 5 rebounds. Without question, one has to give the hometown favorite a lot of credit. They hung in there and had a great opportunity to pull one of the country’s biggest upsets in high school basketball.

The big story line for Oak Hill was the absence of 7’0 AJ Hammons as the Warriors missed his inside presence immensely. While Oak Hill did enjoy a superior height advantage, the pesky and more aggressive Keenan Raiders were quicker to ball and captured 28 rebounds to Oak Hill’s 32 rebounds. The other major story line was the uncharacteristic number of turnovers by Oak Hill as they only had 13 assists to 12 turnovers where as Keenan had 10 assists but only 10 turnovers. This was the first time all season that the Warriors had more turnovers than assists in a game. Oak Hill managed to shoot 27-52 from the floor for 52%, but they went a dismal 3-15 from the 3 point line for only 20%. On the other hand, Keenan enjoyed a sizable difference in free throw attempts but they only managed 10-20 from the charity stripe as Oak Hill went 11-14 for the positive difference for Oak Hill.

Sometimes, great teams need a little luck and on this night the Warriors escaped with a hard fought victory and most great teams will learn from the experience. 

Oak Hill vs. Westtown (Game 1)

Oak Hill opened up with Westtown School in the 10^th Annual Chick-fil-A Classic held in Columbia, South Carolina. Westtown is lead by 6’10 Daniel Ochefu (Villanova) and consensus top 40 prospect. Simply put, the overall team play and overall depth of Oak Hill proved too much for the team from Pennsylvania. The Warriors was on cruise control as they tied the tournament record for the most points in one game of 93. Oak Hill won easily by the score of 93-43 and Coach Steve Smith was able to utilize his bench and rest his players for the next two nights of action.

The general theme for the game against Westtown was balance as six players scored in double figures and in the second half the Warriors were able to get out in transition and get some thunderous dunks that got the crowd roaring in approval. Oak Hill played unselfish and the box score illustrated exactly that.

Leading the way for the Warriors was 6’3 SG D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera with 16 points. He went 4-5 from the field and 2-5 from the 3 point line while going 2-2 from the free throw line. He dished out a team high 6 assists. 5’11 PG Tyler Lewis chipped in 14 points going 4-6 from the floor and 1-3 from the 3 point line while knocking in 3-4 from the free throw line. He dished out 3 assists and had 2 steals. 6’5 SG RJ “Microwave” Curington also contributed 14 points going 3-5 from the field and 2-3 from the 3 point line while going 2-4 from the free throw line. 6’5 SG Jordan Adams scored 10 points going 5-6 from the field but went 0-4 from the 3 point line. Adams also collected 10 rebounds while dishing out 3 assists for another outstanding all around game. 6’5 WF Damien Wilson got the crowd aroused in the second half with his impressive dunks as he went 4-6 from the floor and 2-2 from the free throw line. In addition, Wilson dished out 4 assists for the Warriors. 6’6 PF Monterius Hall also got into the double digit scoring act with 10 points going 5-6 from the floor.  Others that contributed to the scoring totals were Jordan Tebbutt with 9 points, Ike Ierubu with 6 points while Darion Clark chipped in 4 points.

For the game, Oak Hill shot 62% for the game going 38-61 from the field and shot 62% from the free throw line going 9-15. The Warriors dished out 23 assists while committing only 7 turnovers. In addition, Oak Hill had 31 rebounds and had 15 steals.  Oak Hill will now advance to the semi-finals to face last year’s runner up team W.J. Keenan of South Carolina.