WALES – Oak Hill coach Bruce Nicholas has been preaching patience on the offensive end. Unfortunately for him and the Raiders, Belfast provided a classic example of the benefits of patience Thursday night.
Colin Kennedy scored 10 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter, most of them off wide open looks resulting from a deliberate Belfast offensive set, to help the Lions hold off the struggling Raiders, 48-34.
The Lions twice extended a five-point lead to seven in the fourth quarter by finding Kennedy coming off a screen for wide open foul-line jumpers, then kept feeding his hot hand to pull away.
Ben Felton (six points, five assists) hooked up with Kennedy three straight times, first on a backdoor cut, then the next two times at the foul line. Yates Murphy found a curling Kennedy again for a “J” with 2:39 to go, and Andy Whalen (12 points, nine rebounds, five assists) drove to the hoop for another score a minute later that put the game away.
“They work the ball and wait for a good shot,” Nicholas said of Belfast. “They’ll work it around and work it around and find the Whalen kid or (Kennedy) wide open. They understand because they’ve played more basketball games than most of our guys.”
“(Being patient) has been something that we haven’t done real well, but they did a great job at that tonight,” Belfast coach Terry Kenniston said. “The game got a little tight and they got patient. Kennedy knocked down three big jump shots from the foul line.”
Mike Eaton led the Raiders (0-10) with 13 points, but struggled with foul trouble for much of the game.
After falling behind, 11-5 after the first quarter, the Raiders tied the game on a pair of Eaton jumpers, one of them from beyond the 3-point arc. But then the senior point guard drew his third foul midway through the second period, and that helped spark a 9-0 Belfast run that vaulted the Lions (3-7) to a 25-13 lead at halftime.
The Raiders shot just 20 percent from the field in the half, and finished the game hitting 31 percent. Belfast, meanwhile, shot a solid 53 percent for the game.
“Our shooting percentage has been poor all year, basically because of the patience in our offense,” Nicholas said. “It’s a panic. And I can understand where it’s coming from. We haven’t won a whole lot of games and they want to make it happen. They want to score and we lose our patience.”
Eaton drew a fourth foul on a charge midway through the third period with Oak Hill down 11. But this time the Raiders rallied, getting a pair of hoops from Josh Rush (five points) and a putback from Lee Reynolds (six points) to pull within seven heading into the final quarter.
The Raiders but the deficit to five three times, first on an Ethan Guerette steal and layup, then a Todd Nyberg hoop, and then a baseline drive by Reynolds. But Kennedy had an answer each time.
“We’d get that gap to five points, and then a foul or a couple of turnovers where we don’t get any shots off, and now all of sudden, it’s back up to 11,” Nicholas said.
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