Oak Harbor dumps Bearcats

Juniors Jessica Denmon and Nicole Mowbray have become a potent one-two punch for the Oak Harbor High School basketball team.

In the past several games the duo has taken turns earning high-point honors and Saturday evening, it was Mowbray’s turn to shine.

Taking the charge in the first half of the game against Monroe, the 5-foot, 11-inch forward scored 15 of her game-high 27 points as the Wildcats rolled to a convincing 64-45 victory.

Denmon also scored in double figures, hitting for 17 points.

Oak Harbor came out of the locker room in the first quarter ready to play and took an 18-6 lead in the first eight minutes of the contest that was never relinquished.

The Wildcats started the game with a 7-0 run and never looked back, en route to their second WesCo North victory of the season.

“One of our goals tonight was to get off to a good start, which we didn’t do the last time we played,” coach Brett McLeod said.

The Wildcats tacked on an additional 18 points in the second quarter to hold a comfortable 36-24 halftime advantage.

Mowbray scored four baskets in the second period, most of them coming inside the paint, off assists from seniors Jennifer Jansen, Cori Henricksen and Denmon.

“We played an excellent game today,” Mowbray said. “Our energy at the beginning was really high and we kept it going throughout the whole game.”

The Wildcats played an aggressive game of basketball the entire evening scrapping up rebounds and any loose ball on the floor belonged to Oak Harbor.

“We felt we had to out-work people tonight, unlike the last game,” McLeod said. “I thought we got out-worked by Arlington and that was the reason we lost.”

Monroe’s Sarah Murphy scored her third 3-point basket of the game at the 1:35 mark of the second quarter to narrow the lead to 30-22, but that was as close as the Bearcats would get.

Jansen scored eight points for the Wildcats and Kathryn Fisken netted four.

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