WINTERSVILLE — About 48 hours after meeting with a trophy on the line, Oak Glen and Indian Creek were back on the court facing off again.

After fending off the Golden Bears for the OVAC championship on Saturday night, the Redskins came out Monday night at home with a lot of energy and never trailed on the way to a 44-28 repeat victory in a makeup game on Coach D Court.

Creek (17-4) opened the game on a 12-2 run and led by 10 at halftime, shooting 50 percent in the first half.

“I was really proud of the energy we came out with,” Indian Creek head coach Steve Eft said. “You never know what you’re going to get coming off a big game like we were in Saturday, and add in playing against the same team, but they came out with a lot of energy and effort and I am real proud of them for that.”

Creek was not as successful shooting in the second half, just 21.7 percent after halftime, but some early third quarter makes pushed the lead to 16 and it never fell below double digits the entire second half as the Bears (10-7) struggled to get shots to fall the entire game, finishing shooting just 30.8 percent and 2 of 9 on 3-pointers.

“We just have to knock down shots, if we knock down shots like we normally do it’s a different game,” Oak Glen head coach Ryan Wells said. “I thought we had great looks, we just did not shoot well at all. For us, outside shooting is our bread and butter and none of us were hitting. I thought we executed well, they have a great half-court defense but we were getting open looks and just not making the shots.

“It just wasn’t our night shooting the ball. You have those nights. Luckily, we haven’t had many of them. Some of the credit definitely goes to Indian Creek’s half-court pressure, but we were create open shots and missing on great looks.”

Kaydence Walker, the OVAC championship game MVP, again led Creek in scoring with 12 points to go with five assists, four rebounds, three steals and four blocks. Riley Sadler netted 10 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Gracie Wiley knocked down three of Creek’s five 3s to finish with nine points. Gabby Taylor had five steals, five assists and four rebounds.

Creek out-rebounded the Bears 26-18 and forced 15 turnovers, recording 10 steals.

“It wasn’t our best night shooting but I thought our defense played really good,” Eft said. “I thought our defense was better than Saturday.

“Gracie hit a couple 3s early and got us going, it was good to see her bust out, she played a great game for us. I thought overall, we executed a little better. We weren’t shooting that great, but we were getting the looks we wanted and defensively we communicated well and rebounded, boxed out and did a good job.

“It was a good team win overall.”

Oak Glen was led by 10 points from Mikalyn Balch, who hit Oak Glen’s only two 3s in the game. Haylee Stewart had six points, seven rebounds, three steals and a block and Keira Vick tallied six points off the bench.

The Bears shot just 25 percent in the second half.

Doing it all again

After just playing two days earlier, both coaches were happy the schedule worked out for the teams to do battle again.

“Playing them is going to make us better for the tournament, I talked to coach Wells before the game about that,” Eft said. “These are the games you want at the end of the year, testing yourself against good teams.”

While coming up on the short end of both meetings, Wells knows seeing a team like Creek will help his team be ready for tournament time.

“Indian Creek is a really good team, good luck to them the rest of the way and congratulations to them on four (OVAC titles) in a row,” Wells said. “Playing them will help us in the tournament, playing good teams exposes weaknesses and shows us what to work on.”

Up next

Oak Glen: Continues a busy stretch with a trip to rival East Liverpool on Wednesday night.

Indian Creek: Closes the regular season with a trip to John Marshall on Thursday.

Indian Creek 44, Oak Glen 28

OG 7-11-4-6 — 28

IC 12-16-8-8 — 44

OAK GLEN (10-7): Everett 0 0-0 0; Balch 4 0-0 10; Wells 0 0-0 0; H. Stewart 3 0-0 6; E. Stewart 1 0-0 2; Vick 2 2-5 6; Polly 2 0-0 3; May 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 12-39, 2-5; 28.

INDIAN CREEK (17-4): Klinesmith 3 0-0 7; Wiley 3 0-0 9; Walker 5 2-2 12; Sadler 4 1-2 10; Taylor 0 2-2 2; Crouch 2 0-0 4; Leach 0 0-0 0; Flesher 0 0-0 0; Cozart 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17-47, 5-6; 44.

3-POINTERS: Oak Glen 2 (Balch 2); Indian Creek 5 (Wiley 3, Klinesmith, Sadler). ASSISTS: Oak Glen 9 (Everett 3, H. Stewart 3); Indian Creek 13 (Walker 5, Taylor 5). REBOUNDS: Oak Glen 18 (H. Stewart 7); Indian Creek 26 (Sadler 8). STEALS: Oak Glen 6 (H. Stewart 3); Indian Creek 10 (Taylor 5). BLOCKS: Oak Glen 1 (H. Stewart); Indian Creek 5 (Walker 4). TURNOVERS: Oak Glen 15; Indian Creek 10.