Opp’s seasons end
Published 12:16 am Wednesday, February 4, 2009
ASHFORD — St. James’ Rusty Christian and Daniel Hubbard helped their team end the Opp Bobcats’ season Tuesday night, winning, 67-33.
Christian put up 30 points while Hubbard shot 11. Christian put up most of his shots from the perimeter, which the Bobcats could not defend.
“Opp has been a great team to play,” St. James coach Vincent Royals said. “I know they’re young and our team is a little more seasoned. We enjoyed playing them. We’re happy to be in the area with them.”
The Bobcats (4-22) kept close with the Trojans early Tuesday night, staying at a one-point difference halfway through the first quarter.
St. James suddenly got on a scoring drive and pulled away by seven points going into the second quarter.
The Trojans’ scoring drive would continue against Opp in the second quarter as St. James put up 18 points compared to the Bobcats’ seven.
Opp coach Ronnie Sansom said his team played poorly Tuesday night.
“We got taken to the woodshed,” Sansom said. “We were down 18 at halftime and we had missed 11 free throws in the first half. We had (St. James) in foul trouble and got them in a situation like we wanted it. We couldn’t take advantage of it.”
At the start of the second half, Christian and Hubbard both put up multiple 3-pointers to gain the momentum to win. In the third quarter, St. James scored 19 points compared to Opp’s 10.
The Trojans put up an additional 13 points in the fourth to seal the win.
The leading scorers for Opp were Gavin Free, who put up 23 points, and Spencer Youmans, who had six.
Sansom said a positive Tuesday night was the fact his team executed well.
“We played hard and did execute the ball on offense like we had against them in the past,” he said. “We matched them a little better early on.
“Then, they went to the zone because they were in foul trouble and we didn’t take advantage of it,” he said. “They started killing us on the boards.”
On the season overall, Sansom said his team is different now than when they started.
“Like I said early on in the year, we wanted to be playing our best ball in January with the exception of one or two games and I think we were doing that,” Sansom said. “We’re very young and started the year very inexperienced. We are a year better right now and we have definitely improved as a team overall.
“There is just a lot of stiff competition in 4A and we’ve got along way to go between now and next year. With the effort these guys have, we’ll be fine.”
Brewbaker Tech girls 54
Opp girls 37
The Opp Lady Bobcats ended their season Tuesday night as they traveled to play Brewbaker Tech, falling, 54-37, in the play-in game of the Class 4A, Area 2 tournament in Ashford.
The Lady Bobcats (13-11) went scoreless in the first quarter against Brewbaker Tech and trailed, 16-0.
“We didn’t show up and didn’t get off the bus in the first quarter,” Opp coach Allison Gregory said. “We couldn’t get anything going and we didn’t execute the game plan. We couldn’t seem to get the ball in the hole.”
Opp scored seven points in the second quarter, compared to Brewbaker’s 12.
In the third quarter, the Lady Bobcats struggled more, only putting up 11 points compared to Brewbaker’s 16.
Brewbaker sealed the win in the fourth, putting up 10 points to Opp’s 19.
The leading scorers for Opp were Mychal Drew with 14 points and Soyia Folmar with 11.
Gregory said the season overall was successful.
“I think we accomplished those things we needed to accomplish with the young team we had,” Gregory said. “I think overall it was a positive season because of the foundation we built for this year going into next year. We have the grounds to be successful and the expectations will be a little bit higher because everybody has been in the system.
“We had a lot of young kids get a whole lot of playing time,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll work over the summer and come back as a different team.”