Health & Fitness
Oak Forest Defense Puts the Clamps on Illiana Christian in 4th Quarter to Secure a Come-From-Behind Road Win
Oak Forest Boys Basketball comes from behind in 4th quarter to defeat Illian Christian 63-58
On Tuesday night in Lansing, down 57-44 with over 7 minutes to play, the Oak Forest boys basketball team's defense buckled down. The Bengals only allowed one free throw the rest of the game, outscoring Illiana 19-1 to win 63-58.
After getting off to a good start, leading after the 1st quarter 18-13, the Bengals became careless with the ball during the 2nd and the 3rd quarters allowing Illiana to take a 55-44 lead entering the 4th.
The turnover bug continued on the Bengals' first possession of the 4th, leading to the last Illiana basket with 7:20 left. Playing without suspended guard Kyle Funkhouser, the other Bengal seniors stepped forward.
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T.J. Mayer led the Bengals in scoring with 16, including 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. Tim Loeding started slowly but came on to score 15 along with 9 rebounds.
Mario Schaeffer had 8 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and was instrumental in the 4th quarter zone press defense that shut down Illiana. Junior guard Tom Zale filled up the stat sheet with 12 points, 6 rebounds, 5 steals and 2 assists. Zale also had 6 of the 18 Bengal turnovers but none in the decisive 4th quarter.
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Junior guard Blake Waller offset his 6 turnovers by blanketing the Illiana leading scorer while adding 2 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists (too bad Blake wasn’t wearing his football uniform No. 22). Tom Shute added 5 points. David Gray had a traditional 3-point play, and Christian Tidball, who was called up from the sophomore team to fill in for an injured Ryan Walton, added 2 points.
