Oak Glen’s Reecelyn Craig goes up for a shot over Tyler’s Andi Fisher on Friday in a Class AA, Region 1 contest. (Photo by Ron Firth)

NEW MANCHESTER, WVa. — It was a tale of two halves when fourth-seeded Oak Glen hosted fifth-seeded Tyler Consolidated in a West Virginia Class AA, Region 1 girls tournament basketball game Friday night.

In the first half, the Golden Bears controlled the tempo and led 25-21 at the break, but in the second half, the Silver Knights dominated the boards and forced turnovers out of the hosts to post a 59-53 triumph over Oak Glen.

“It was the small things,” said Oak Glen head coach Ryan Wells. “I really think Tyler Consolidated did a good job tonight of doing the small things. We knew that winning the rebounding battle was going to be a key, and I would say without looking at a stat sheet yet, that didn’t happen.”

Taller Tyler won the boards 24-17 and forced 25 turnovers out of the Golden Bears, including 16 in the second half.

“That’s one of the things we’ve really worked hard on is our defense throughout the season,” said Tyler head coach Scott Wall. “And we’ve improved as we’ve gone on. We knew that the last time we played them the pressure helped us in that game, so we thought we would see how things would settle in at first and try to apply some pressure. We just want to try to speed the other team up as best we can because we seem to play better when we do that.”

“What did shock me was the pressure hurting us like it did,” said the Oak Glen head coach. “It (pressure) hadn’t really hurt us all year and we’d been repping against it. They didn’t show anything we didn’t expect, it’s just we didn’t handle it in spurts, and in spurts when you give up eight points in a close game, that can happen.”

Leading Tyler was Jules Lattea who finished with a game-high 21 points, while teammate Katie Grimm added 13 markers and Ryland Henderson finished with nine points.

Pacing the Golden Bears was standout guard Mikalyn Balch who poured in 18 points, while Kensington McConnachie added 16 points.

The win sends the Silver Knights (11-12) into the next round of the tourney Wednesday night against the top-seeded Wheeling Central Catholic Maroon Knights (20-2). The victor will earn a trip to the state tournament Mar. 5.

“We had a good season last year and went to the state tournament in Class A so now we’re Class AA and it’s a little tougher with different schools but we’re excited for the challenge,” said Wall.

The Golden Bears jumped out to a 10-6 lead after one period but Tyler responded with a 14-5 run to take as much as a three-point advantage (20-17) with 3:57 showing before halftime. But Oak Glen’s Balch, who had 14 points in the first half, paced an 8-4 Bear run to give Oak Glen a 25-21 lead at the break.

But Tyler began to speed the game up and its defensive full-court pressure hampered the Golden Bears in the third quarter as Tyler forged a four-point (37-33) advantage after three. The Golden Bears had nine turnovers in the period, giving the Silver Knights extra possessions which they capitalized on.

“Their length gave us difficulty because for us it’s a mismatch,” said the Oak Glen coach. “We like to play man too but they’re kind of a nightmare mismatch for us this year when it comes to man.”

Tyler took its largest lead of the game at 11 points (54-43) with 1:27 left. The Bears impressively outscored the Silver Knights 10-5 in the remaining time to cut the final deficit to six points.

“I tell our team all the time, make the shots you’re supposed to make and play hard and we played hard but I don’t think we made the shots we were supposed to make, but it’s a lot of credit to Tyler,” said Wells. “I just told the girls if we played Tyler Consolidated 100 times they’re going to win 50 and we’re going to win 50.”

Oak Glen concludes its season with a 13-8 record.

“We had four core seniors that started most of the year,” said Wells. “It’s Oak Glen, it’s dominated by a lot of volleyball and a lot of softball, but to have a core group of girls who are willing to play those multiple sports here, we’re really lucky.”

Notes

¯ Oak Glen and Tyler split their two regular-season meetings with the Golden Bears claiming a 53-33 win at home on Dec. 3 and the Knights defeating Oak Glen 72-61 on January 25 in Sistersville.

TC: 6-15-16-22–59

OG: 10-15-8-20–53

TYLER CONSOLIDATED SCORING: Andi Fiber 0-0-0, Riley Stover 3-0-7, Ryland Henderson 3-2-9, Taylor Donaldson 0-0-0, Macie Highley 1-0-2, 20 Jules Lattea 9-3-21, 21 Katie Grimm 4-5-13, Sloane Wall 0-0-0, Addison Reed 1-5-7. TEAM TOTALS: 21, 15-20: 59

OAK GLEN SCORING: Emma Everett 0-0-0, Mikalyn Balch 6-4-18, Addyson Wells 0-0-0, Haylee Clark 0-0-0, Angelina Polly 0-0-0, Keira Vick 1-0-3, Tia Vick 0-0-0, Reecelyn Craig 2-1-6, Kensington McConnachie 6-3-16, Haylee Stewart 1-2-4, Ella Stewart 2-0-6. TEAM TOTALS: 17, 11-16: 53

Three-point goals: Tyler Consolidated 2 (Riley Stover 1, Ryland Henderson 1), Oak Glen 7 (Mikalyn Balch 2, Ella Stewart 2, Keira Vick 1, Reecelyn Craig 1, Kensington McConnachie 1).

Total fouls: Tyler Consolidated 20, Oak Glen 24. Fouled out — Riley Stover, Taylor Donaldson, Mikalyn Balch.