Woodland defeats Oak Ridge for BCS Conference Tournament championship

OAK RIDGE — The Woodland Cardinals girls basketball team defeated the Oak Ridge Bluejays 66-44 on Wednesday at Oak Ridge High School to win their fourth straight BCS Tri-County Conference Tournament championship.

Woodland led 13-7 after the first quarter, scoring most of its points on fast breaks after forcing Oak Ridge into numerous turnovers.

However, the Cardinals fouled too many times, which allowed the Bluejays to stay within six.

Oak Ridge found some offense in the second quarter by going inside to Reagan Howe and Madyson Ruehling, which made up the deficit and sent both teams into halftime tied at 22.

Cardinals head coach Paul Lynch said it took the team a while to get going because of its lack of playing.

“We started out kind of slow. We’ve been off for almost a month. This is the second game we played in a month, so we were just trying to get back in the flow of things. Coach (Julie) Ward does a great job with her girls. They played hard and they played very well as a team,” Lynch said. “The second half, we kind of picked up our pace, and kind of started hitting some shots, and that kind of gave us a little energy, and that helped propel us.”

The third quarter was all Woodland as the Cardinals exploded for 24 points.

A multitude of Bluejay turnovers that led to fast-break points helped Woodland build a 46-30 lead after three.

Midway through the third, Woodland senior Mallary Barks hit a free throw to notch her 1,000th career point. Barks said it was exciting, but she was just happy to win the game.

“We’ve won this tournament four years in a row now. So it was just really exciting, and it really brought the energy for the rest of the game,” Barks said. “After that, I felt like just the team started playing harder and our energy went up. So I feel like it wasn’t just me, it was everybody. It just boosted all of our energy.”

The final quarter was more of the same. Oak Ridge turnovers turned into fast-break points for Woodland, and the Cardinals cruised to the win.

Barks finished the game with 19 points for the Cardinals.

Howe led Oak Ridge with 14 points, while Ruehling scored 12 for the Blue Jays.

Woodland hosts Delta at 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 20, while Oak Ridge will host Crystal City at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21.