Oakland wins in rout to advance to AAA semis
MURFREESBORO — First-game jitters?
None at all.
Sixth-ranked Oakland dismantled Bartlett
"We're not satisfied to just make it here," Oakland junior AnsleyEubank said. "We want to get to the championship. We want to win a championship. That's all we want to do."
Oakland (27-7) plays seventh-ranked Bearden (31-4) at 10 a.m. Friday at MTSU's Murphy Center in the semifinals.
Oakland center Shelby Gibson and forward Abby Wright dominated the paint against the Lady Panthers, combining for 38 of the Lady Patriots' 59 points.
Gibson, a junior with multiple college offers, scored Oakland's first eight points. The Lady Pa
"We knew they didn't really have a lot of size," said Wright, an Eastern Kentucky signee. "We knew we could take it in on them. When shots (from the perimeter) weren't falling, I just drove in and tried to do the best I could to score.
"If I couldn't, I just passed it to my teammates who were open."
Oakland shot 25 of 42 from the field (59.5 percent) compared to Bartlett's 11 of 37 (29.7 percent).
Gibson, a 6-foot-1 post, was 8 of 8 from the field and finished with 19 points and six rebounds.
Wright had 19 points and seven rebounds. She was 9 of 19 from the field, however eight of her misses came from the 3-point line where she was 1 of 9.
"Shelby stepped up," Oakland coach Jennifer Grandstaff said. "She's tough to guard. And we put Abby on the block a little bit and posted her up.
"Then we got hot from the perimeter, and that helped."
Belmont signee Paris Lawson added 11 points for the Lady Patriots and also grabbed seven rebounds.
Oakland held Bartlett without a point for the first 6:00 of the third quarter to extend a 14-point lead to 40-19 after Gibson's 3-pointer.
Jessica Jackson's 3-pointer ended the drought. Jackson finished with 15 points and hit three 3-pointers.
Grandstaff pointed to Eubank as a key contributor to the defensive stand. The 5-foot-8 guard held Bartlett 6-0 post Charity Savage to just nine points. Savage was just 2 of 10 from the field and was the Lady Panthers' top offensive threat entering the game, having a string of 12 straight double doubles and then a triple double during the season.
"I can't say enough about her grit and toughness," Granstaff said of Eubank. "She never takes a play off. She did a tremendous job on (Savage).
"When I first said Ansley was going to match up with her, everyone was like, 'She's tall.' I was like, 'Yeah, but the fight she has inside of her I wouldn't trade for any 6-1 player.' I just can't say enough about her. For her to struggle offensively to score was because our kids recognized who their go-to players were and they stopped them."
Contact Tom Kreager at 615-278-5168 or tkreager@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kreager.
Oakland 59, Bartlett 31
Oakland 14 19 16 10 – 59
Bartlett 12 7 3 9 – 31
Oakland: Hannah Eaglen 5, Zachuriya O'Neal 2, Abby Wright 19, Shelby Gibson 19, Paris Lawson 11, Aaliyah Patterson 3.
Bartlett: Jessica Jackson 15, Charity Savage 9, Nyla Smith 2, Dee Dee Williams 3, Bethany Davis 2.