Senior night at Oak Harbor High School belonged to Rodrick Rumble.
Playing in a Wildcats’ basketball uniform at home for the final time in his career Tuesday night, Rumble scored a career-high 37 points against Monroe.
However, the other 10 Oak Harbor players who had time on the court managed to score just nine points between them, and the Bearcats upped their WesCo North season record to 10-5 with a 57-46 victory.
“Overall, I thought we played to the best of our abilities,” coach
Mike Washington said. “They have a tough basketball team.”
Washington started the game with an entire senior contingent comprised of Dana Eckberg, Brandon Howard, Jake Rouser, Eric McCardle and Rumble for their final time in front of the home-town crowd, and Monroe took a 6-0 lead before McCardle halved the margin with one of his two 3-point baskets in the opening period.
The Bearcats upped the lead to 12-3 before Washington put all of his starting five players on the floor, and the first eight minutes ended with Oak Harbor trailing 18-6.
Rumble scored all but one of the Wildcats’ points in the second period, and then scored 12 additional points in the third quarter to tie the score 41-41 heading into the final eight minutes of the game.
“I made some mistakes, but I did my best,” he said of his career-high scoring performance. “God blessed us and we have a better team than our record indicates.”
The Wildcats went on an 8-0 run to open the third quarter and at the 4:05 mark, held a 35-34 lead before Monroe fought back to tie the score.
Oak Harbor simply ran out of steam in the fourth quarter and being forced into committing fouls, got outscored 16-5 as the Bearcats put the game in the book.
“I think the guys gave us all they had for the majority of the season and they never quit,” Washington said.
Monroe had three players in double figures led by Jason Waltman with 27 points. Teammate James MacIntyre had 14 points and Tim Ohlsen scored 10.
Washington praised senior post Jake Rouser for his play the entire season.
“He did such a great job for us,” Washington said. “If he hadn’t come out for the team, we would have been so small.”
Washington said he learned a lot from the season the team went through during this year’s campaign
“This season hasn’t been what I’d hoped, but you have to learn to lose before you can learn to win,” he said.
