Whitney defeats Oak Ridge handily this time

Whitney and Oak Ridge, two teams in the middle of the pack in the Sierra Foothill League boys basketball standings, met Wednesday night at Oak Ridge for their second of two games this season. Whitney (17-7 overall, 6-4 SFL) won the first meeting 67-60 and this time controlled the game from the second quarter on to beat Oak Ridge (16-9, 6-4) handily 73-54. The score was tied 16-16 after one quarter, but Whitney outscored the Trojans 57-38 the rest of the game, including 24-12 in the second quarter. Oak Ridge coach Marcus Bray was not pleased with his defense. "There were a lot of things you could point to for the loss, defense, rebounding and not executing offensively," Bray said. "We had a defensive game plan coming into the game. They score 70 percent of their points going to the right, (so we wanted to force them to the left) and we didn't do it. We talked about it before the game. It's frustrating. Losing Gavyn didn't help either." Oak Ridge guard Gavyn Hoenig was injured early in the third quarter and left the game bloodied and didn't return. The Trojans cut a 40-28 halftime deficit to 42-40 midway through the third quarter, but by the end of the third quarter they were down 55-42. Oak Ridge cut the deficit to eight twice in the fourth quarter but couldn't get closer. "This was a huge win on the road," Whitney coach Nick French said. "We've been playing a lot better and have been finding ourselves and growing up. I love how Brock Strauch played tonight. He had his best game of the season. Gio Lee came off the bench and played a good game. He was attacking and played with confidence. "I was also happy with our rebounding. That's been our thing this year and we've worked hard at it. I thought we went after the ball well tonight. When you play Oak Ridge and against Lucas Cutler, you've got to rebound. I think in three games last week Cutler averaged 20 rebounds a game." Strauch led the Wildcats with 24 points. Lee scored 13 off the bench, while Saahill Sabhis hit four 3-pointers and scored 12 points. Cutler led the Trojans with 18 points after scoring none in the first quarter. Hoenig scored 10 before leaving the game in the third quarter, while Hudson Schroeder scored nine points. While the Trojans play at Jesuit on Friday, the Wildcats will be at SFL-leading Folsom. "The first thing we have to do is believe that we can win the game," French said. "It will take the same effort we played with tonight. The next thing you have to do against Folsom is make some shots. They've got three DI players on their team that can make shots, so we've got to be able to make shots with them."