The Oak Harbor High School boys basketball team closed out the non-league portion of its schedule with an 82-51 loss to visiting Ferndale Monday, Jan. 19.

Both coaches, particularly Ferndale’s Monte Walton, used the opportunity to give bench players extended playing time. All 12 Golden Eagles and nine of the 13 Wildcats who played scored.

“Being a non-league game, the win wasn’t as important,” Oak Harbor coach John Weston said. “Getting better was.”

Ferndale, behind eight points from Brady Shearer, jumped to a 22-14 first-quarter lead.

With points from Dyllan Harris, Josh Cote and Jake Sturdevant, the Wildcats then cut the gap to three before the Golden Eagles (10-4) surged just before half to go up 41-24.

“The first quarter and a half were tight,” Weston said. “We played with a little fire, played tough. We then lost a little focus on the task at hand. I think we might have been looking ahead to Marysville-Pilchuck, and that is my fault.”

Oak Harbor (1-2, 2-11) returns to conference play when it travels to M-P (3-0, 9-2) at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 20.

Harris led all scorers with 20 points. Ben Fikse, Preston Rankin and Sean Erskine all scored six; Christopher Viers had four; Cote and Sturdevant three each; Zach Jones two and Diangelo McKinney one.

Carson Genger and Austin Honeycutt scored 14 to lead the Golden Eagles; Honeycutt also grabbed 12 rebounds.

Ferndale shot 60 percent (30-for-50) while holding Oak Harbor to 27 percent (12-for-45).

The Wildcats finished with 14 turnovers, Ferndale eight.

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Coach John Weston talks to his team during a timeout Monday night. Photo by John Fisken.