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Riders rally to down Bears

NEW MANCHESTER, W.Va. — Oak Glen made a furious second half comeback to erase an 11-point Weir High lead at halftime and were ahead by five points with two and a half minutes left in the game, but the Red Riders made a 12-4 run down the stretch to pull out a thrilling 57-54 win last night inside the Oak Glen Fieldhouse.

Oak Glen senior, Zach Taylor, came out of the locker room after the intermission on fire scoring the first 15 points for the Golden Bears including three straight triples in a span of 20 seconds. But Weir High senior, Elijah Gillette, sealed the outcome of the game going to the foul line twice in the final 23 seconds making all four of the foul shots.

Taylor, who had a double-double, ended up scoring a game high 28 points with 10 rebounds. Gillette finished with 10 points, but fellow senior, Tanner Mikula, had his best scoring night of the season to lead the Red Riders with 15 points. Another senior, Sebastian Spencer, added 11 points.

After Taylor had such a torrid third period, veteran Weir High coach, Mike Granato made a strategic move putting Spencer, a defensive specialist, on him and Taylor was able to get just one field goal in the fourth quarter.

“I want to tip my hat to Zach Taylor,” Granato said after his club notched it’s eighth win in 12 games. “We changed defenses three times because of him. It was an unbelievable performance. To his credit he made shots from all over the court.”

Gillette got the lead back for Weir High for good when he made a steal and dribbled all the way in for a layup with 1:13 left to play. That put the Red Riders ahead 51-50. He went to the basket again with 47 seconds left, made the layup off of a nice feed by Spencer, and was fouled, but he missed the free throw leaving the score at 53-50.

Oak Glen coach, Jerry Everly, got a time out to set up a three-point play that would tie the game and called upon Taylor, but the shot with 29 seconds left didn’t go. Then, Gillette with ice water in his veins went to the foul line twice more and drained two freebies each time for a 57-52 Weir High lead. Oak Glen’s Blake Perez made an uncontested layup as time ran out for the final margin.

“Taylor played like he wasn’t going to let us lose,” Everly said. “He was going to fight till the bitter end. He took the team on his shoulders and brought us back in that game. I’m real proud of the way Zach played. He took the responsibility of making a play and that’s what he did. That’s going to help us down the road.”

Oak Glen junior Jacob Clark played a strong game inside scoring 12 points, pulling down 7 rebounds and blocking four shots.

WEIR: 13 19 13 12 57

OAK GLEN: 9 12 19 14 54

WEIR HIGH (8-4): Spencer5 0-0 11; McUmar 1 1-2 4; Gillette 3 4-5 10; Cross 1 0-0 3; Curtis 1 0-0 2; Nosko 1 0-2 3; Kelly 1 0-0 2; Nutter 3 1-1 7; Mikula 7 0-0 15. TOTALS: 23 6-10 57. Three-pointers: 5 (Spencer, McUmar, Cross, Nosko, Mikula); Rebounds: 19 (Mikula 7); Turnovers: 11.

OAK GLEN (7-6): Patterson 2 0-0 5; Perez 3 0-0 6; Taylor 11 2-2 28; Clark 5 2-2 12; Mineard 1 1-4 3. TOTALS: 22 5-8 54. Three-pointers: 5 (Taylor 4, Patterson); Rebounds 30 (Taylor 10, Clark 7); Turnovers: 13

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