NEW MANCHESTER — Knowing his team had a big edge in experience, veteran Oak Glen head coach Jerry Everly wanted to see his group take care of business against Madonna in its last game before the new year.

His Golden Bears did just that, pulling away for an 80-34 victory over the youthful Blue Dons inside the Bears Den Tuesday night.

The victory sends Oak Glen into the new year above the .500 mark at 3-2.

“We played well against a team that we should beat,” Everly said. “They’re very young, their time will come, so we wanted to take care of business and get them while they’re young. We wanted to take care of ourselves, worry about our own game and execute and I thought we did.

“I told them to take care of business and not take anything for granted, not come out sloppy and execute the things we work on in practice and I thought we did a good job of that. We still have some things to work on, but that’s good, we’ll keep working.

“It’s good to go into the new year above .500.”

Oak Glen had four players reach double figures — two of which did so coming off the bench — and knocked down nine 3s in the victory.

Gavin Geisse netted 14 points to lead the way, while Mason Kell hit three of the triples to finish with 11. Colt Hissam also tallied three treys and finished with 11 points off the bench, while Tyler Evans came off the bench and also tallied 11.

All told, 10 of 11 players to see the floor for Everly’s team scored, all 10 contributing at least five points.

Oak Glen opened an 18-8 lead after one, then scored 25 points in the second quarter to push the lead to 24 at halftime, then continued to build it the rest of the way to the 46-point victory.

For Madonna (1-6), which dressed a lineup of five sophomores, three freshman and a junior, the early season growing pains continued, though they continue to play hard for their veteran coach.

“We’re learning, there are growing pains,” Madonna head coach George Vargo said. “Our kids play hard, they just have to learn the game better. But they keep playing hard and they don’t give up. We start a freshman and four sophomores, so we know we’re going to go through the growing pains. We’ll get better as we go and keep learning and keep growing.

“We’ve seen a lot of improvements from Game 1 to Game 7.”

The Dons were led by 14 points from Reno Fuscardo and eight from Jake Druga.

Up next

Madonna: Has another tough match up Saturday when it travels to Toronto.

Oak Glen: Goes to Wellsville on Saturday night.

Oak Glen 80, Madonna 34

M: 8-11-11-4 — 34

OG: 18-25-18-19 — 80

MADONNA (1-6): Wingert 1 1-2 3; Dillon 1 2-2 4; Chiodi 2 0-0 5; Druga 4 0-0 8; Fuscardo 5 4-8 14; Gray 0 0-0 0; Welch 0 0-0 0; Decaria 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 13, 7-12; 34.

OAK GLEN (3-2): Chase Hartung 3 0-0 7; Mason Kell 4 0-0 11; Will Weekley 2 0-0 4; Noah Willey 3 0-0 6; Gavin Geisse 7 0-0 14; Tyler Evans 4 2-2 11; Ates 2 0-0 5; Kam Herbock 2 1-2 5; Aidan Dawson 3 0-0 6; Colt Hissam 4 0-0 11; Camm Dittman 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 34, 3-5; 80.

Three-point goals: Madonna 1 (Chiodi); Oak Glen 9 (Kell 3, Hissam 3, Hartung, Evans, Ates).