BURLINGTON—What normally is a strength for the Oak Harbor boys basketball team was absent Monday night.

The Wildcats were out-rebounded and out-muscled by non-league Burlington-Edison, falling 77-65 on the road.

“That’s what killed us, it absolutely killed us,” Oak Harbor head coach Bryan Schulle said.

Looking at the totals, one might think there wasn’t a big difference on the boards. The Tigers ended the game with 42 rebounds to the 34 of Oak Harbor. It’s not the total, however, that hurt the Wildcats—it was the timeliness of the rebounds.

Oak Harbor couldn’t gather a single rebound in the third quarter on offense or defense.

“We had lack of positioning, lack of blocking out, stuff that we’ve done fairly well this year,” Schulle said.

Burlington, on the other hand, used the rebound to their advantage. The Tigers had 20 offensive boards for the game, many of which they picked up in the third quarter when they built a 50-39 lead.

Oak Harbor managed to stay in the game behind the hot shooting of junior forward Marc Ferguson. With the Cats down 11 at the 3:20 mark of the third quarter, Ferguson helped chip away at the lead by knocking down three consecutive three-pointers in a two minute span.

“He made some really good shot choices,” Schulle said.

Ferguson’s shots helped pull Oak Harbor to within two, 54-52 at the end of the period.

The Tigers, however, pulled away by continuing to create second chance opportunities. Up by four, 61-57, Burlington senior Kyle Campbell broke Oak Harbor’s hopes with 5:45 to go in the game. After teammate Kevin Arendse missed two free throws, Campbell snagged the offensive rebound, powered a shot up and in and picked up a foul. His made free throw put the Cats down by seven, 64-57, and they were never able to recover.

Making the loss more difficult to swallow, Burlington defeated Oak Harbor with the absence of seven varsity players, who committed athletic code violations. Four of those players were starters.

Ferguson led the Wildcats with 29 points, including four three pointers and a huge two-handed break away dunk to start the fourth quarter. Senior Jeremy Brown added 11, while senior John Lobbestael put in 10.

After Monday’s game the Wildcats had a 2-5 overall record. They played non-league Squalicum last night in Oak Harbor. Expect results in the Saturday edition of the News-Times.

Burlington 77, Oak Harbor 65

Oak Harbor 16 16 20 13—65

Burlington 14 20 20 23—77

Scoring—OH: Ferguson 29, Brown 11, Lobbestael 10, Saar 6, Heidt 5, McClure 3, Metcalf 1.

BE: Ingman 23, Anderson 16, Garrett 12, Arendse 12, Campbell 7, Clem 3, Thomas 2, Wynn 2.