Oran girls basketball team closes memorable year with loss to New Haven

PARK HILLS, Mo. -- After the Oran girls basketball team's season came to an end Wednesday night, second-year coach Ethan Evans spent some time in the locker room going over the highlights from the season and sharing some of the strengths of his players with them.

"Best coach," Oran senior Addie Kielhofner said about Evans, who led the Eagles to an 18-10 record. "Best basketball coach, especially for girls, because he knows how to deal the best with us. We've been through so many coaches, and he can handle us the best. Like he always says, he's got triplets, he knows how to deal with a situation when his hands are full."

Evans took over a program that had just five players on its roster two years ago and helped it reach the Class 2 state sectional round this year, where the Eagles lost to New Haven 47-27 at Park Hills Central High School.

There were no tears and some laughter after the game among the players, who hope they helped start a tradition at Oran.

"I always want them to remember us three seniors," said Kielhofner, who will graduate along with Taylor Nenninger and Christan Sauceda. "I want to leave them a district title, and I want them to follow in our footsteps and try to pick up and do better than we were able to do."

Oran’s Tatum May tries to wrestle the ball away from New Haven guard Megan Shockley as the Shamrocks’ Kayla Meyer looks on during the Class 2 sectional in Park Hills, Mo. New Haven won 47-27. (Adam Vogler)

The Eagles hung with the Shamrocks, who have finished second in the state the last two season, for most of the first quarter as both teams struggled to score early. New Haven led 6-3 after the first quarter and went on an 8-0 run after an Oran basket to start the second quarter and never looked back.

"They just work the ball around so well that they're going to get open shots," Evans said. "And when they get open shots, the majority of the time they're going to make them. I thought that first quarter was kind of abnormal for them -- and just their defensive pressure. They play great man-to-man defense. They do such a good job of helping, and you haven't faced anything really [like that]. Saxony, we played them this year, that's about the equivalent of the way they play. Their defense is just suffocating."

The Shamrocks like to keep games low-scoring, but that doesn't mean they like to play slow. They were in almost constant motion on both ends of the floor.

"You can't ever let your guard down," Evans said. "It's basically four people popping out and cutting and finding different spots. When they get a jump shot, they're going to take it. You've got to close out hard every time. You can't just halfway get out there. If you do that, they're going to knock it down."

The Eagles relied on their pressure defense for most of the season, but they didn't apply it at all until the second half Wednesday.

"We came out and pressed a little more," Evans said about the second half. "I don't know if we should have did that from the beginning of the game. Every coach that I talked to said you can't press them. ... You'll wear yourself out, so to just to kind of stay back and try to contain. We did. We came out and pressed and we just kind of turned it up a bit intensity-wise."

The Eagles cut New Haven's nine-point halftime lead to six with 5 minutes, 35 seconds remaining in the third quarter with some help from their pressure.

"Our third quarter is usually our best quarter," Nenninger said. "We come out strong. We came in and talked about some things, and it was fresh on our minds. We had to go out there and do it."

It wasn't long before the Shamrocks adjusted to the pressure, however. Oran never got any closer as New Haven methodically extended its lead for the remainder of the game.

"We had a great effort," Evans said. "We came up short, I thought, on the rebounding end especially. They were missing some shots early and even some there in the third quarter. We set the precedent to win a district title. The underclassmen -- let's bring them back next year."

Oran finished the year with 18 wins -- the most in program history -- to go along with 10 losses and plans to build on this year's success.

"That's the hope," Evans said. "That's always the hope. We had some pretty good success in our younger ages this year and just trying to get everyone bought in and know that we want this to be normal, not something that just comes out of the blue every once and a while."

Oran 3 6 8 10 -- 27

New Haven 6 12 11 18 -- 47

ORAN (27) -- Addie Kielhofner 5, Ashlyn McIntosh 4, Taylor Nenninger 11, Allie Cummins 4, Christan Sauceda 3. FG 11, FT 3-6, F 13. (3-pointers: Sauceda 1. Fouled out: none)

NEW HAVEN (47) -- Stephanie Scheer 2, Emily Kallmeyer 2, Stephanie Gerling 10, Kayla Meyer 13, Rachel Steinhoff 16, Megan Shockley 2, Olivia Fleer 2. FG 20, FT 7-9, F 12. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none)