War Eagle Lawrence Named District 14-5A MVP

Oak Ridge High School senior basketball player Terrell Lawrence was named the District 14-5A Most Valuable Player, beating out a host of very good players from The Woodlands, Kingwood, Atascocita and Lufkin for that honor. The War Eagles were well-represented on the All-District team, with junior Taw Mann earning Second Team All District Honors, and seniors Halen Butler, Chase Daniels, D’Marcus Fitch and Mark Forson, along with junior Michael Handy, each earning Honorable Mentions.

Butler, Forson and Handy led a group of Oak Ridge players who made the Academic All-District team, including senior Torrey Dickey, junior Brent Burress, and freshman Tanner Doyel.

Our congratulations go out to each of these guys for their individual honors, all made possible by their hard work and perseverance, and the time and effort put in by Coach Stewart and his staff.

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Roller Coaster Season Ends with Loss to Klein Forest

The Oak Ridge War Eagle basketball team concluded their season Tuesday night with a tough first round playoff loss to a very talented Klein Forest team, 66-52 at Tomball high school.

Klein Forest broke things open in the second quarter in outscoring Oak Ridge 31-9 in that stanza which was enough to seal the War Eagles fate. Oak Ridge lost the first quarter by two and won the last two quarters but with the Eagles resembling more like a team out of Rucker Park in New York City than a high school basketball contingent in the second quarter, it was all the War Eagles could do to make the final score look somewhat respectable.

Terrell Lawrence Led Oak Ridge with 27 points followed by D’Marcus Fitch’s 11. For Klein Forest, Tyree Gray and Rafael Farley scored 12 and 11 respectively in leading a balanced Eagle scoring attack.

Oak Ridge’s season was chaotic to say the least. With all of the health issues, the players who were healthy enough to play had to suck it up and play out of their minds. As for the coaches, this has to be one of Rob Stewart’s best coaching performances of his career. In being fortunate enough to know Coach Stewart, I know he’ll give most of the credit to his players and coaching staff. Rest assured, he is an awesome coach in that he knows the X’s and O’s like the back of his hand but that isn’t what makes him successful. What does is he has the ability to reach inside his players to motivate them to play to the best of their ability and they respect him. This is the kind of coach that wins AND teaches life lessons. Down the road, these kids will know how much they benefited by playing in a Rob Stewart coached organization.

Now, as has been the case, Coach Stewart will give you his view on the playoff loss and his encapsulated version of this insane season. Enter Rob Stewart:

“We had a wild roller coaster ride. Scary at times, but one heck of a rush! There is a coaster in Orlando called The Hulk. We once rode that roller coaster as many times and as fast as we could we’d run back and get in line. That’s what this season felt like. Now that the season is over, I feel like I did after riding The Hulk that many times in a row.”

“The season began with a great 11-2 start. During that time, we beat six of this season’s playoff teams in a row. We were looking as if we might make a very deep run in the playoffs.”

“We had already suffered the loss of one player as Danzel Brady broke his foot the first week of the season. If a team has one bad injury, that is usually it. Every team deals with two or three sprained ankles and some jammed fingers. However, what was getting ready to happen to us bordered on unfair.”

“Beginning on Monday, December 13th we started dealing with losses of players and games. D’Marcus (Fitch) suffered a severe high ankle sprain during our loss to Cy Ridge and he did not play for three weeks. On December 18th, Daron Gamble injured his knee at Klein Collins and he did not play the rest of the year. Michael Handy was not available to play in the Conroe Tournament and he missed one district game. We had two players lose eligibility due to grades, which is the first time that has happened since 2001. Marc Forson dislocated a bone in his foot and missed the second round of district play. Halen Butler hurt his knee at the Woodlands game and did not play again until the playoffs. In fact, the playoff game was the first time that we had 12 healthy players since the first week of the season. Chase Daniels was the only player that played in all 31 games this year. Last year, we had 8 players that played in every game. That shows how much change we had to deal with.”

“The Klein Forest game was a microcosm of our season. We played great for three quarters and had a terrible second quarter. Forest outscored us 31-9 and we only allowed 36 points the rest of the game. Even if we had allowed a 20 point second quarter, I believe we would have won the game. We started trying to play the way
that Forest was playing and that led to misses for us and points for them.”

“I am very proud of how we continued to play and fight through all of our adversity this season. I have said before that this is the most resilient group of young men that we have had. If they were not, we would not have won 19 games, been third in district and made the playoffs for the third year in a row. I feel like Coach Suchma and Coach Lucas also had a huge role in keeping our season rolling. They encouraged and coached like madmen this year to help our team be extremely successful. Our players and coaches fought hard every day this season to win.”

I know I can speak for all of us fans in our community when I express our appreciation for such an entertaining season. In a different way, this season was almost as exciting as last year’s Oak Ridge squad that got to the third round of the postseason.

We can’t wait until basketball season starts again. Kick their butts in the offseason Coach. This winning stuff is contagious.


Comments to Doug Sarant at doug@oakridgenow.com

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War Eagles Clinch Playoff Spot With Big Win Over Lufkin

In defeating Lufkin 79-53 on Tuesday night, the Oak Ridge boys basketball team effectively knocked the Panthers out of the District 14-5A playoff picture. More importantly, the War Eagles clinched a playoff berth of their own and will now play Kingwood next Tuesday to decide second place.

The War Eagles (19-10 and 7-4), led by a sizzling Terrell Lawrence jumped out quick and never looked back as Lawrence connected on three three-balls in the first quarter.

Lufkin falls to 15-15 and 3-7 in district. They were led by JJ Baldwin who scored 21 points. Terrell Lawrence led Oak Ridge with 26 points. Taw Mann scored 12 and Chase Daniels tallied another 11.

The way the War Eagles played on Tuesday night was indicative of their balls to the wall-who cares who we are missing-lets kick some butt manner with which they’ve played the entire season. In rarely having the same line-up for two games in a row, this is the only way the War Eagles can be successful.

This just in!!! They are quite good at it. Coach Rob Stewart and his staff have led their charges to the playoffs three seasons in a row. With the playoffs looming, once again the War Eagles are playing excellent basketball when it counts the most.

Before games, how many times have you heard that certain players are missing so don’t expect much. They’ve been missing guys all season and you know what, if it doesn’t mean squat to the team, it should mean jack-squat to us fans. But I digress. Time for someone with some basketball knowledge to let you know the current state of Oak Ridge boys basketball affairs. Enter Rob Stewart:

“Someone took a picture of a pile-up that occurred during the game and that was indicative of how we played all night. Both teams played their tails off for 32 minutes. Lufkin was playing to keep their playoff hopes alive and we were playing to clinch a playoff spot and move up in the standings. Terrell went crazy in the first quarter. He had 11 pts, he went 3 for 3 from behind the arc.

Lufkin Coach McManus had some surprises for us. Lufkin played us most of the game in a zone press. They have not done that all year, so we didn’t practice for it. Michael (Handy)and Chase (Daniels) did a great job adjusting our game plan to fit Lufkin’s trap.

Michael and Chase have really been the reasons that we have won three games the second round of district.

We had two more injuries. Halen (Butler) strained his knee on Saturday when we played Woodlands. Marc (Forson) played his first full game on Saturday since being injured, then he hurt his foot in practice on Monday. So, neither of those guys played. We hope to have them back by  the Kingwood game. Rudy Robinson made his first start of the year in a pressure packed situation and did great! Rudy has been a defensive specialist most of the year, so his role changed a lot with the injuries we had last week. Tanner (Doyel) had been sick on Monday and did not practice. He played one of his best games of the year. He is a pretty tough freshman!

This team is the most resilient group that I have ever coached. If they weren’t, we would have been out of the playoffs long before now. Taw (Mann) and Terrell (Lawrence) really shut their bigs down last night. Their bigs combined for a total of six points! Taw has become a good defender for us. He has made the biggest improvements defensively on our team this year. It was a huge win. I think I have said that before, but it’s true. We clinched a playoff spot for the third year in a row. Kingwood and College Park losing helped us too. If we can win on Tuesday at Kingwood, we will secure 2nd place.”

Let’s all make it to Kingwood next week! This team’s been busted their rumps all year. We owe them a great turnout. We need to start following these guys around like we did last year deep into the state playoffs. Starting next week with the last regular season game in Kingwood, the playoffs actually start now people!

See you in Kingwood!!!

Comments to Doug Sarant at doug@oakridgenow.com

Oak Ridge Pinks Out, But Last Home Game Leaves Them Blue

The Oak Ridge Lady War Eagles did all they could in trying to derail the 18th state ranked Woodlands Lady Highlanders on Saturday afternoon, but the girls from across the highway were just too much in taking this district contest, 67-45 at the Eagles Nest.

Lady Highlander Kara Evans led a balanced scoring attack with 12 points. Kelsey Lang had 11 to go along with 7 boards.

Oak Ridge’s Brandi Lawson led all scorers with 15 points. Tatiana Jackson had another solid game in pouring in nine points while grabbing a game high 11 rebounds. Nadia Schmidt contributed 9 and 6.

Seeing as this was the last home game for Oak Ridge, the careers of the six Lady War Eagles were celebrated on Pink-out/Senior night… afternoon.

As is now becoming an annual occurrence when these two teams get together at the last home game, a fundraiser for a local charity called Jamie’s Journey was held. Between the two teams, over 650 tee-shirts were sold to help support the charity. In attendance were the founders of this great charity, Janet Baker and her daughter, Sam Togni. Both women spoke before the game and shared their story of Jamie’s Journey. “Jamie” Batruch, the late daughter of Janet and sister of Sam passed away on February 14, 2009 after battling Cancer.

As for the Senior Night portion of this event, it was a great send-off for all six hard working young ladies.

Brandi Lawson will either attend UT or Blinn Junior College. Nadia Schmidt is off to Blinn Junior College. Celeste Rypien will be blessing the University of North Carolina with her presence. Shelby Cage, who was injured in the pre-season, saw her first floor time in this game. She’ll be furthering her education at Texas State in San Marcos. Dani Scibek has a choice between the University of Hawaii or UNC. Christian Beeman is choosing between Rice and UT Dallas.

Oak Ridge (11-14 and 2-9) travels to Lufkin on Tuesday to close out their season as TWHS (23-5 and 10-1) hosts Kingwood.

Comments to Doug Sarant at doug@oakridgenow.com.

For more information on Jamie’s Journey, see www.continuingjamiesjourney.org or send an e-mail to Janet Baker. Share this with your friends on Facebook and other sites.

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York Lady Eagles End Season on 52-15 High Note

To celebrate Parents night, the 8th grade York Lady Eagles bludgeoned the hapless Knox Lady Knights to the tune of a 52-15 thrashing as the Lady Eagles were clicking on all cylinders.

From the opening tip, York controlled the tone and pace of the game.  In utilizing fast breaks, the full court press, lights out defense, and a decent shooting percentage, the Lady Eagles ramped up their performance in their final game of the season.

The girls dominated all statistical categories with 28 rebounds, 3 blocked shots, 15 assists and 21 steals to offset their 16 turnovers.  The Lady Eagles shot a moderate 34% from the field but hit 50% from three-ville.

The pace was blistering from the tip off as the Lady Eagles charged away from the Knox Knights 22 – 5 at the end of the first quarter and led 31 – 7 at the half.  Coach Kloesel mixed the on-court player match ups into groups to complement each other for different tempos as the team exhibited how they have gelled through the season.  With four guards and one post on the court for a series, the tempo was fast breaks and steals.  With three posts and two guards, the game was forced to the paint and boards.

As is their trademark, the young Lady Eagles were high energy to go along with being quick and clean and ended the game not giving up a single point in the fourth quarter.

York wore just two blemishes this district season in losing twice to the talented and classy McCullough Highlanders.

In finishing second in the district, the girls can hold their heads high as at all times they played to the best of their ability. All of the players advanced with their skills and knowledge of the game during the season.  These 10 girls played together last year and were Co-District Champs.

A few of the girls whose primary sport is soccer or volleyball have hinted at not continuing with basketball but when you see how much they have learned in their two years of competitive school basketball and how their skills have improved, it would be a shame to not continue playing next season.  When these players are in the groove, they can hang with any team, anywhere. The aggressive York style of play lends to quite the exciting atmosphere and are always worth double the price of admission.

Oak Ridge high school is excelling across the board due in part to the magnificent people coming out of York every year. The future looks bright for not only girls basketball but all organizations at Oak Ridge high school. The York Lady Eagles 100% go get ‘em style is a microcosm of what the Oak Ridge high school feeder zone is becoming.

STATS:
1 2 3 4
York 22 9 11 10—     52
Knox 5 2 8 0—     15

Lawrence, Oak Ridge Tops Atascocita in Last Seconds

Photo courtesy of Jim Eastin

The District 14-5A second place Oak Ridge War Eagles continue to play like men possessed completely ignoring the fact that they will most likely continue to play the remainder of district without four key players.

Tuesday night in the Eagles Nest, the resurgent War Eagles came all the way back to defeat Atascocita 45-43 culminating in Terrell Lawrence’s winning basket with three seconds showing on the clock.

Lawrence, who finished with 13 points saved his best for the fourth quarter in lifting Oak Ridge to the victory after the War Eagles had not seen the lead since the early stages of the game.

The War Eagles upped their district record to 6-3 with their overall mark moving to 18-9.

Halen Butler also scored 13 points in saving 10 for the second half doing his part to pull the War Eagles back from the 27-21 halftime deficit.

Torrey Dickey has now etched his name onto the Unsung Hero trophy in turning in yet another blue collar performance. Dickey has stepped up in a big way this season and with several players missing presently and others missing at various parts of the season, he has been nothing short of huge.

In what turned out to change the complexion of the game, with Oak Ridge down by 12 points late in the third quarter, Dickey took a bone crushing charge on a would be Atascocita slam.

Coach Rob Stewart pointed out the significance of Dickey’s defensive gem, “That was the play of the game right there.”

Atascocita is now 4-5 in district and will most likely have to win their three remaining games or get help to play in the postseason.

Oak Ridge travels across the highway on Friday to play district leading The Woodlands who stand at 10-0 in district and 24-3 overall. The Woodlands game at Lufkin was postponed until today due to a power outage in Siberia.

NOW you get the real story: Coach Stewart’s take on the game…

We played very average defense in the first half and then we came out at the beginning of the second half and did the same thing. Fortunately, the players had enough of average and they decided to lock down on defense. After the first two minutes of the third Quarter, we only allowed 11 more points.

The play of the game was when Torrey took a charge on what would have been a dunk to stretch their lead to nine with one minute to go in the third quarter. Instead, Felicia picked up his third foul. That ended up being huge because later in the fourth quarter, Felicia got his fourth foul and a technical which ended his game. Michael Handy scored on our next posession to cut their lead to five on an inbounds pass from Terrell. Halen got a steal their next time down the court, was fouled and made both free throws to cut it to a three point lead.

Halen scored 10 of his 13 pts in the second half and Terrell had 7 in the fourth. It seemed like we missed a ton of shots to get a lead in the fourth, but in reality it was just a few misses. We uncharacteristically missed five out of six free throws in the final quarter which was frustrating. In the end, Terrell scored with three seconds left in the game off of a great pick and roll by Taw. Chase picked off their final pass to seal our win.

You can’t ever count these War Eagles out. We have come back so many times this year. In fact, what we did tonight was almost the exact same scenario that we had at Atascocita earlier this year for a win.

I like Coach’s version better.

Stats:

1      2    3    4  — total

Oak Ridge    13    8   11  13 — 45

Atascocita    12   15  10   6  — 43

Oak Ridge: Lawrence; 13 Butler; 13

Atascocita: William House; 10 Bridge Lavey; 11

Comments to Doug Sarant @doug@oakridgenow.com

Lady War Eagles Bounce Back, Beat Conroe 62-54

Oak Ridge bettered their 2010 district win total in beating Conroe 62-54 for their second district W Friday night at the Eagles Nest.

The hungry Lady War Eagles have been through some rough times of late and the victory over the Lady Tigers was just what the doctor ordered. In avenging the previous loss to Conroe, Oak Ridge got out of the gate quick and took a 19-11 lead after the first quarter. Conroe was not impressed as they fought back to tie the game at 26 at halftime.

Oak Ridge has been taking it on the chin with some brutal losses this season but they keep fighting hard and can always hold their heads high. This game was no different as they hung tough and beat down a pesky Conroe squad in the final stages of the game to take the eight point victory.

Brandi Lawson poured in 18 points; Tatiana Jackson tallied 13 to go along with 11 boards; Dani Scibek contributed 11 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists; Kali Bass went 6 and 6; Nadia Schmidt played solidly in scoring 5 points to go along with 2 steals; Celeste Rypien had 4 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, a theft and one elbow; Chantal Franco played 31 out of 32 minutes and went 3 and 7 with 3 assists and 3 steals.

Conroe’s Destiny Stewart led all scorers with 20 points. Hailey Mack and Raquel Hynson had 11 and 10 respectively for the Lady Tigers.

The girls did something they had yet to do this district season in winning every statistical category.

Oak Ridge travels to Atascocita on Tuesday.

STATS below.

Comments to Doug Sarant at doug@oakridgenow.com

January 28, 2011 (6:51 PM)
League Game at Oak Ridge Girls Basketball

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 OT1 Total
Oak Ridge Girls Basketball 19 7 16 20 0 62
Conroe 11 15 10 18 0 54
Team Stats Oak Ridge Girls Basketball Conroe
Points 62 54
Field goals 16-53 (30.2%) 18-52 (34.6%)
3 point field goals 3-9 (33.3%) 5-17 (29.4%)
Free throws 27-38 (71.1%) 13-24 (54.2%)
Rebounds (Total-Off.) 39-17 14-5
Assists 7 3
Turnovers 18 10
Steals 11 2
Total fouls 22 21
Points in the paint 24 10
Bench points 11 11

Oak Ridge Girls Basketball (* denotes starter)

Player MIN REB AST STL BLK TO F PTS
#1 LAWSON, B. 27 2 0 1 0 2 3 18
#33 JACKSON, T. 21 11 0 0 1 0 2 13
#23 SCIBEK, D. 37 6 2 3 1 6 3 11
#20 BASS, K. 19 6 0 1 0 0 5 6
#4 SCHMIDT, N. 20 1 0 2 0 2 3 5
#15 RYPIEN, C. 20 7 3 1 0 1 3 4
#10 FRANCO, C. 31 5 2 3 0 7 3 3
#34 BEEMAN, C. 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 2
#24 MANNING, J. 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 37 39 7 11 2 18 22 62

Conroe (* denotes starter)

Player MIN REB AST STL BLK TO F PTS
* #10 Stewart, D. 37 2 2 0 1 5 2 20
#24 Mack, H. 21 1 0 0 0 1 5 11
* #14 Hynson, R. 30 8 0 2 2 2 3 10
* #33 Busse, L. 19 1 0 0 0 1 4 6
* #13 Magee, R. 33 0 0 0 0 0 1 4
* #05 Virgadamo, H. 23 0 1 0 1 1 4 3
#11 Davis, R. 19 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
#32 Steele, T. 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
#44 Boatright, B. 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 37 14 3 2 4 10 21 54

Game start time: 6:51 PM

Cavaliers Stop Shorthanded War Eagles 57-44

The Oak Ridge War Eagles hosted the College Park Cavaliers on Tuesday night and the Cavs proved to be rude guests in putting together a complete team effort in defeating Oak Ridge 57-44.

Zach Wright led College Park (21-10 and 3-4) with 20 points and Layton Zinsmeister added 13 as the Cavaliers shook loose from the War Eagles (16-9 and 4-3) in the second quarter and never looked back. In watching Zinsmeister in the warm-up before the game, he must have hit 20 three’s in a row. This accuracy didn’t stop when the game started as he hit three long jacks in the first quarter in helping College Park take a 17-15 lead. Wright singlehandedly broke the game open with nine points in the second quarter and the Cavaliers were in the locker room at the half with a 35-20 lead.

After being down as many as 22 points in the third quarter, the War Eagles were able to get back within striking distance in the fourth quarter but College Park’s defense was just too tough on this night and 12 points was as close as they would get. The story of the game was the Cavaliers defense forcing Oak Ridge into several turnovers of which several were the result of their successful utilization of the full court trap.

To Oak Ridge’s credit, they were without four players including point guard Marc Forson, multi-purpose star D’Marcus Fitch, Darron Gamble and the Chief (Danzel Brady). In speaking with Coach Rob Stewart over the weekend, as is his style not once did he even hint he would be without key people. After the game, he was kind enough to elaborate on the team outlook.

Unfortunately Daron (Gamble) is out for the year. We are hopeful that Marc (Forson) can be back soon. He has a dislocated bone in his foot. It will be a plus for us if Danzel (Brady) or D’Marcus (Fitch) can come back. They are both working real hard in practice to help the team win. They could play in the last regular season game vs. Kingwood.

I have 100% faith in the fact that our other guys are going to continue to pick up the slack. Our players have never adopted the “poor us attitude”. Danzel and D’Marcus were also out for injuries earlier this year. Michael (Handy) and Chase (Daniels) have played starters’ minutes for us the entire year. Torrey (Dickey) is really playing well right now. Rudy (Robinson) has had some big games for us. Tanner (Doyel) has been with us since Christmas due to earlier injuries to D’Marcus. He is really beginning to understand our defensive expectations. We brought Brent Burress up from JVlast night and he did a great job.

The teams that have been hurt have been the ones that I stole players from. Coach Lucas and Coach Altom have done a good job helping our younger players understand that they are always in training to possibly be varsity basketball players.

Terrell Lawrence scored 10 points as Taw Mann and Michael Handy tallied 9 for Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge travels to Conroe on Friday.

College Park 17 18 13 9 — 57

Oak Ridge 15 5 9 15 — 44

College Park: Zach Wright 20 points; Layton Zinsmeister 13 points. Oak Ridge: Terrell Lawrence 10 points; Taw Mann 9 points; Michael Handy 9 points.

Comments to Doug Sarant at doug@oakridgenow.com

War Eagles Pull Away From Kingwood for Big District Win

The Oak Ridge War Eagles continue to gel as the won their second huge district game in a row by defeating Kingwood 51-43 at the Eagles Nest Friday night. In outscoring Kingwood by eight points in the fourth quarter, Oak Ridge took another step up the District 14-5A ladder.

Terrell Lawrence had another big game in draining 22 points. Halen Butler added 11 for the War Eagles. Kingwood’s Brendan Hollerread and Mike Davis had 22 and 14 respectively.

With College Park losing at Lufkin 50-47 and dropping to 2-3 in district, Oak Ridge and Kingwood are in a tie for second with identical district marks of 4-2. Oak Ridge is 16-8 overall.

Atascocita is 3-3 while Lufkin rose to 2-4 and Conroe is stuck in the basement. The Woodlands maintained their unblemished record with an 87-44 whitewashing of the Tigers.

Six teams are fighting for four playoff spots with all having the ability to beat each other. Watch out for Lufkin as they could just as easily be 4-2 in losing two heartbreaking overtime district clashes.

In moving into the closing stages of the regular season, Coach Rob Stewart is true to form in once again having his charges playing their best basketball. With College Park coming to Oak Ridge on Tuesday, this couldn’t come at a better time.

Oak Ridge 51, Kingwood 43

Kingwood 10 6 17 10 — 43

Oak Ridge 9 11 13 18 — 51

Record — Oak Ridge: 16-8, 4-2.

Leaders — Kingwood: Brendan Holderread 22 points. Oak Ridge: Terrell Lawrence 22 points; Halen Butler 11 points.

Comments to Doug Sarant at doug@oakridgenow.com

Photos From Friday’s 51-43 Victory Over Kingwood

Oak Ridge photographer Jim Eastin was able to get a number of good War Eagle action shots in the 51-43 victory over Kingwood. We’ve added them to some other photos from the game to give you an idea of what it was like in the gym Friday night.