WEST POINT — Greg Watkins couldn’t remember the last time his team earned a victory at Oak Hill Academy before Thursday night.
The Columbus Christian Academy boys basketball coach doesn’t have to worry about that anymore after RJ DeLoach scored a game-high 18 points and grabbed six rebounds to lead the team to a 70-47 victory on Oak Hill Academy’s Senior Night.
The Rams (17-8) never trailed in winning the key Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) Class AA, District 2 matchup.
“The kids wanted this game real bad,” Watkins said. “It was a big win for our guys, and I think they just stepped it up a notch.”
Rebounding was a big factor in the Rams’ success. CCA won the battle of the boards 42-28, which Watkins said was one of his team’s goals entering the game.
“We talked a lot about (rebounding) before the game,” Watkins said. “In the JV game, we pulled it out by one, but gave up a lot of second-chance shots. We told our guys before the varsity game we could not give up those second-chance shots. We had to keep them off the boards and limit them to one shot.”
Ken “Buddy” Dill paced Oak Hill with 16 points and made several key shots to try to give the Raiders momentum, but the Rams battled back each time to keep Dill and the Raiders at bay.
Oak Hill Academy coach John Bauer liked how Dill shot the ball, but he said while Dill is a very good shooter, he also displayed streakiness.
“When (Dill) gets going, it is hard to stop him,” Bauer said. “Sometimes he relies on threes a bit too much. He is our go-to guy and he knows that. He is willing to take on that role and score for us.”
Watkins said his team’s goal every game is to hold opponents to 10 points or less each quarter, which happened in the opening quarter. He also liked how the Rams played together.
“We played really good team ball,” Watkins said. “We talked about defense before the game. It’s pretty tough to do (to hold a team to 10 points or less in a quarter), but that is our goal. Holding (Oak Hill) to 47 points is big. We hit some big shots and had some guys come off the bench and play real big.”
n In the girls game, Oak Hill Academy senior Tanner Grubbs made sure she had a big night in a 56-42 victory on Senior Night.
Grubbs, the Lady Raiders’ lone senior, scored a game-high 20 points and had 16 rebounds. Junior Anna Kathryn Childress had 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Oak Hill Academy trailed 11-8 after a first quarter in which it didn’t make a field goal until 1 minute, 26 seconds remained in the quarter. Once Grubbs and Childress established themselves in the post, the reigning MAIS Class AA State champions took care of business. The Lady Raiders took their first lead on a 3-pointer by junior Emily Allen. They led 24-20 lead at halftime before pulling away in the second half.
Bauer said that first shot helped his team gain confidence. He said the Lady Raiders have played like that way all season.
“When they see that first shot go in, it seems to click with them a whole lot more,” Bauer said. “I think that is what we needed. We needed one shot to go in and once it got in, we got rolling.”
Oak Hill Academy will play today at Carroll Academy, while Columbus Christian Academy will play host to Winona Christian to conclude district play.
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