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CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Shooting 67 percent from the free-throw line isn't spectacular, but it sure beats 25 percent.
Oak Ridge converted two-thirds of its free throws while Meadow Heights struggled from the line in the Blue Jays' 80-67 victory in their Mississippi Valley Conference boys basketball semifinal Thursday.
Meadow Heights was whistled for 31 fouls, which resulted in 48 free-throw attempts for Oak Ridge. The Blue Jays hit 32 of their attempts.
"We're used to getting most of our points off the free-throw line," said Oak Ridge sophomore Jacob Light, who went 6 of 8 from the line.
The Blue Jays practice free throws under strenuous circumstances. Oak Ridge junior Caleb Elam, who went 10 of 12 on his attempts, said there's plenty of motivation to hit them in practice.
"Basically coach tells us to drive and make sure we have our heads up and make sure we don't run into charges or anything like that," Elam said. "Just keep our heads up and go to the free-throw line. After we get warm-ups in, you have to shoot 20 free throws. If you don't hit 16, you've got to run. That makes us want to make them. We do that all throughout practice."
The Panthers didn't enjoy nearly the success that the Blue Jays did at the charity stripe. Meadow Heights went 0 of 10 from the line in the first half and 4 of 16 for the game.
"We were 0 for 10 and four of those were 1-and-1s," Meadow Heights coach Tom Brown said. "That's the possibility of a 14-point swing right there. You know, we hurt ourselves."
Despite the horrid free-throw shooting, the Panthers quickly erased an eight-point deficit in the third quarter. They went on a 12-2 run to tie the game at 45-45 with 4 minutes, 40 seconds left in the third. But Elam, who scored a game-high 26 points, was there to stop the bleeding. He nailed a 3-pointer to spark a 9-2 run and Meadow Heights (11-6) never got closer than six points.
"We forced three shots in a row," Brown said. "That was the key. It's not about anything else. You cannot go and force three shots."
After Meadow Heights pulled even, Oak Ridge closed the third quarter on a 19-4 run before Meadow Heights senior Nick Webb hit a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left in the third quarter.
"We made bad decisions," Brown said. "They made more good decisions."
Oak Ridge (13-3) did a decent job of handling Meadow Heights' harassing pressure defense. The Blue Jays turned over the ball 25 times, but they also earned many of their trips to the free-throw line by attacking the defense. Three players fouled out for Meadow Heights.
"If you haven't faced it, it's obviously pretty tough," Elam said of the Panthers' defense. "Once you start getting used to it, you see everything basically and slow it down."
The Blue Jays advanced to today's 8:30 p.m. title game against Leopold, while the Panthers will face Zalma at 5:30 p.m. for third place.
| Meadow Hts | 16 | 17 | 19 | 15 | -- | 67 |
| Oak Ridge | 21 | 20 | 23 | 16 | -- | 80 |
MEADOW HEIGHTS (67) -- Dustin Hubler 8, Adam Walker 16, Daylan Davis 4, Nick Webb 19, Calen Buerck 10, Trent Kiefer 8, Dustin Doublin 2. FG 29, FT 4-16, F 31. (3-pointers: Walker 2, Davis 1, Webb 2. Fouled out: Davis, Trever Hotop, Buerck)
OAK RIDGE (80) -- Stephen Bolen 5, Caleb Elam 26, Brett Thomas 15, Garret Light 11, Logan Mangels 5, Jacob Light 16, Lucas Rohde 2. FG 22, FT 32-48, F 16. (3-pointers: Elam 2, Thomas 1, Mangels 1. Fouled out: none)
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I am only commenting on the attitude of players on ther Oak Ridge players. The Meadow Heights team had no chance in the last 4 min of the game. They had to play 8 instead of 5 since the fouls was all called on Meadow Heights 10 to 1 fouls something wrong. Brett Thomas needs to meet someone to take him down off his high. He can and will be beat. He can fly high now but he will hit hard when he is taken down to the normal. The officials suck Blue jays could be over the back and slap arms and nothing was called on them and The Panthers could breath on them and get called for a foul. I hope the Leopold Wildcats puts on a old fashion BOCO ### whippin tonight and beats the Blue Jays. Good Luck Panthers on your game tonight.
This comment makes me laugh.
That comment makes me wonder where mhs learned the English language.
The recent comment that has been submitted is very absurd, the OR players play to win, they have an amazing attitude on and off the field! Any true BBall fan knows that players play with fire and passion! It is a disgrace to hear fans talk like that about passionate players.
I just want to say to the panther fan, maybe just maybe the coach & the players should adjust to the way the refs were calling this game. If you noticed the first half the fouls were called pretty even, with the Light kid in foul trouble with 3 fouls in the first quater & the Thomas kid with 3 fouls before the half.The Oak Ridge coach & players made the adjustment Meadow Heights did not.If you look back on the season, I bet you will not find to many games that the opposing team outfouled Meadow Heights.
I hope that the person writing this is still in school. Because they could sure use some help with their grammar.As far as calling a person out, that should not be allowed on this thread.If this person is an adult It's pretty imature.
GO JAYS
Ok oak ridge fan, you also need to go back to school because you have some spelling issues as well, immature has one more m!
Yes, both teams did foul, but oak ridge did foul a lot more than were called. 48 to 16 free throws is a little ridiculous! How many times did Meadow Heights point guards penetrate only to get smacked and pushed around with no calls which led to many lay-ups?
Good Luck Tonight Leopold!
Bottom line is that referees don't win or lose a game, it's the coaches and players. Blaming the officials is a cop out no matter what side you're on.
Haha i luv it when pepple arggue bout spellin erors on an sport forumm! I don't pay attention to either of these teams but while I'm at the sikeston game tonight I'll be rootin for the blue jays!! GO JAYS LOL!!
It all comes down to this. Oak Ridge was an easy win for most of the schools around. But this year they are having a successful year. Brett Thomas is a talented player and so is the rest of the team. Meadow Heights dosen't like losing to Oak Ridge and Oak Ridge dosen't like losing to Meadow Heights.It's called rivalry.Oak Ridge was able to make the shots last night. And thats what it takes folks making the shots.
Good Luck tonight ZALMA!!!
Go Bluejays! Good luck tonight!
being from ND, and I was at that game last night, fouls were going both ways, it just so happens that the bluejays picked up their game during the second quarter and started to not foul as much. the Bluejays know what needs to get done in the end and how to keep their attitudes in control, that is what works! good luck Jays!
"The recent comment that has been submitted is very absurd, the OR players play to win, they have an amazing attitude on and off the field! Any true BBall fan knows that players play with fire and passion! It is a disgrace to hear fans talk like that about passionate players."
I love passionate players and players that play to win, but they should always remain good sportsmen. Talking smack, calling the MH players b*tches all night on the court and flying elbows does not reflect well on the OR players. If this is the amazing attitude you are referring to, I'll leave it thank you.
I prefer to watch a game that is won or lost fairly and not from inconsistant calls. I am sure that MH would not have minded losing either, if the game had been lost on equal footing.
If your talking about the emotions running through the game, every rivalry game has trash talk in it. Anybody that actually watched the game knows that MH fouled nearly everytime down the court. Good luck in the CHAMPIONSHIP Bluejays!
mhs Nice job I was hoping you would catch my mistake. Seems like you can spell better than you led us all to believe!!!!!!!!!!
Panther fan and mytwocents,
Let the numbers do the talking. Oak Ridge has played Meadow Heights twice this year. 6 different refs (3 for each game) and at two different times of the year.
Game 1
MH - called for 25 fouls (shot 7 free throws)
OR - called for 12 fouls (shot 34 free throws)
Game 2
MH - called for 31 fouls (shot 16 free throws)
OR - called for 16 fouls (shot 48 free throws)
What is your theory on this? Nobody likes Meadow Heights or something. Oak Ridge shoots a ton of free throws every game, because they attack the basket. These 2 games are almost perfect matches. In game 2, OR is called for 4 more fouls than the first game and in return MH gets about 8 more free throws. In game 2 MH is called for 6 more fouls and in return OR gets about 12 more free throws.
It's about style of play, not the refs. I didn't hear a single person complain about the SAME crew that called the Leopold and Zalma game. Apparently, the adult referees don't like the kids from Meadow Heights and they wanted them to lose. Seriously, come up with a better excuse.
How about not going 4 of 16 from the free throw line and you might have a chance to win that game at the end. Or how about all of the times that OR threw the ball full court over the top of the MH press for easy layups. Or all the times that Light and Thomas got defensive rebounds and beat the MH players down the court for 3 on 2 breaks. What is your excuse for that.
gmctough
Well said this should put an end to this story. Let the facts speak louder than words........
Maybe if Meadow Heights isnt very deep they should try and avoid the foul a bit more.
Oh my! We can't have these perfect high school kids letting their emotions out. I'm sure the Meadow Heights players were just standing there and taking this abuse while these delinquents from Oak Ridge were throwing elbows and doing all of this name calling. I tell you waht, from my experience playing against Meadow Heights, they are no angels. I wasn't there but I've seen both teams play and they both play hard and, as with any team that plays hard, there may be the occasional elbow thrown and a few choice words thrown out there. As much as everybody hates to admit it, that's part of the game. I don't care if you think it should be or not, but it is and until there are worse penalties for these actions, they will continue to be in the game.
If the game was fairly called, why did one of the refs that was there Thursday apologize to the MH coach before Friday's game?
apologize for what?
There were calls that were missed on both sides. I plainly saw one of the officials go up to another during a timeout and tell him that when the Meadow Heights player hit the backboard that they should have called a technical foul. He said very clearly, "he hit the backboard after the ball went through the hoop". Had they made that call the game could have been over a lot sooner, had OR hit the two technical free throws and scored on the inbounds. So, don't talk about one of the officials being the reason you lost.
Even if one official thought that he made a couple of bad calls, it wasn't enough to offset the fact that late in the 3rd and in the 4th, Meadow Heights got outplayed.
I go back to, that there is no need to complain about the officials AT ALL. 0-10 from the free throw line in the first half cost you that game. Also, Garret Light only played about 1/2 of the 1st quarter in the first half b/c of foul trouble. Logan Mangels set almost a whole quarter in the first half as well b/c of foul trouble. Brett Thomas was on the bench by the end of the the second quarter with 3 fouls.
Oak Ridge made the adjustment and just didn't foul in the second half.
well said gmctough! everything that you've said is very true. tuesday night's game should be very interesting... can't wait to see how it turns out