Wildcats go cold
Published 7:00 pm Wednesday, January 29, 2003
It’s not every high school basketball game you get to face an opponent who is a highly regarded Division I college prospect.
The Oak Harbor Wildcat boys basketball team stumbled across that challenge in their 64-44 loss to Stanwood Friday night.
Despite their loss, the Wildcats did a solid job of shutting down six-foot-three guard Ryan Appleby, who will attend the University of Florida next winter and recently scored a career-high 45 points against Monroe.
Wildcat junior Jeremy Brown was given the challenge to guard Appleby and go up against him offensively.
“I knew he was really good,” Brown said. “I had to just take it to him.”
Brown displayed the philosophy of taking it to him in the first quarter when he put a crossover dribble on Appleby that almost made the prep star fall out of his shoes. Brown then pulled up for a three-point shot, draining it right in Appleby’s face, giving Oak Harbor its only lead of the game, 12-11.
“Jeremy did a nice job against him offensively,” Oak Harbor head coach Bryan Schulle said. “He kept him honest. Jeremy showed a lot of heart out there playing him.”
Offensively, Appleby was held to 18 points by Brown and a variety of other defenders. Unfortunately for Oak Harbor, Appleby’s ability to score wasn’t his only asset.
“The thing is with Appleby is he changes the entire face of the game,” Schulle said. “He changes everything.”
The senior distributed the ball to his teammates, allowing three others beside himself to score in double-figures.
Appleby wasn’t the only thorn in the side of the Wildcats on Friday night. A combination of cold shooting, untimely turnovers and relaxed defense hurt Oak Harbor in the loss.
“We got good looks,” Schulle said. “Even if we were to hit half of those looks that we missed we would have been alright.”
After battling hard through the first half Oak Harbor found themselves only down by eight, 30-22 with the second quarter clock winding down. Attempting to run the clock out and get the final shot, the Cats made two costly turnovers in the final 20 seconds of the half, with one resulting in two points for the Spartans.
“We hoped to go one shot,” Schulle said. “We figured if we’re down eight, we’re down single digits. Then we turned it over and the score went to double-digits.”
After the half Oak Harbor allowed two straight scores on consecutive possessions by Stanwood and the Cats found themselves in a hole they could not dig out of. By the end of the third quarter the Spartans had built a commanding 49-29 lead.
“We have to minimize our mistakes,” Schulle said. “They kids played hard tonight, they just couldn’t get it done.”
Brown finished the leading scorer for the Cats with 17 points, including two three-pointers. Senior Jon Jansen added 11 points for Oak Harbor.
With the loss the Wildcats drop to 3-6 in league and 3-10 overall.
Next for Oak Harbor is a road game at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 31 at Arlington.
Oak Harbor—12 10 7 15—44
Stanwood— 15 17 17 15—64
Scoring—OH: Brown 17, Jansen 11, Fulgham 7, Lacey 7, White 2.
SW: Appleby 18, Toshner 14, Boser 13, Heckendorf 11, Hinderman 4, Poh 2, Welk 2.
Records: Oak Harbor 3-6 in league, 3-10 overall; Stanwood 7-2 in league, 9-4 overall.
