Going in, this one had “blowout” written all over it, but the Oak Harbor High School boys basketball team battled Arlington before falling 60-44 on the Eagles’ floor Friday, Jan. 30.

The Wildcats entered the game with a 3-13 record, while Arlington sported a 11-5 mark, including a 77-51 win in Oak Harbor two weeks ago.

Arlington was emotionally charged for its fifth annual Coaches vs. Cancer event, and a large, pink-clad crowd enthusiastically backed the Eagles’ efforts.

And to make matters worse for Oak Harbor, it played the game without the division’s leading scorer, Dyllan Harris, who is averaging 21 points per game. No other ‘Cat averages more than 7.5.

Harris, who injured his hand, may miss several more games, coach John Weston said.

When Arlington jumped to a 16-6 first-quarter lead, it appeared the game was following the likely script.

Leading the way for the Eagles was Donavan Sellgren, who lettered for Oak Harbor as a freshman before moving to Arlington. The junior point guard pumped in a couple of three balls to ignite the Eagles and the crowd.

Oak Harbor, however, didn’t play along.

In the second quarter, the Wildcats’ defense created turnovers and good looks, Weston said, and Oak Harbor limited Arlington to only seven points.

That cut the Eagles’ lead to 23-18 at halftime.

The Wildcats continued to claw back early in the second half, knotting the score.

Sellgren then rescued Arlington, peppering in several more threes that helped the Eagles finish the quarter on a 14-2 run. That pushed Arlington to a 42-28 lead going into the final quarter.

Oak Harbor hung with the Eagles in the fourth period but couldn’t put a dent in the deficit.

Sellgren finished with 26 points and six three-pointers.

“I was really proud of the guys tonight,” Weston said. “To go into Arlington, who had a huge crowd, play without our leading scorer and execute the way we did is very encouraging. We followed our game plan better tonight than we have all season.

“I thought we got a huge spark from Anthony Powell. He showed a lot of toughness and made some big plays when the game was tight.

“Sean Erskine and Ben Fikse played well inside, getting important boards and scoring in the key.

“Zach Jones also showed some good leadership early on; he was definitely the leader on the floor.”

Powell topped Oak Harbor with 10 points, Jones had nine, Erskine nine, Josh Cote six, Fikse five, Preston Rankin three and Jake Sturdevant two.

Oak Harbor (2-5, 3-14) buses to Marysville to meet Getchell (0-7, 3-14) at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3.