By Steve Keenan
For The Register-Herald
CHARLESTON —
A solid third-quarter spurt lifted Oak Hill out of the doldrums and into the Class AA basketball semifinals.
Although shaky at times, the Red Devils — the No. 2 seed — were successful Wednesday in their first step toward a possible Class AA state championship, thumping seventh-seeded Keyser 63-38.
The Red Devils used a decisive surge beginning midway through the third period to put Keyser away and advance to a Friday semifinal showdown with No. 3 Weir, which beat Sissonville 54-42.
Jack Flournoy scored 19 points, cleared 10 rebounds and blocked four shots to pace Oak Hill (19-4). DeAndré Leonard scored 14 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and passed out five assists, and Kalif Wright had 12 points and 10 boards despite experiencing foul trouble.
Leonard’s efforts in the third period proved to be big for the Red Devils. Leading just 35-28 after a short jumper by the Golden Tornado’s Damon Thorne at the 4:08 mark, the Devils got a three-pointer from Leonard to go up 10, 38-28. Later the junior canned a jumper to make it 40-30, and then he rebounded a missed shot and assisted on a Flournoy dunk that pushed the margin to 12, 42-30. Flournoy followed his stuff with a three-pointer from the top of the key, making it 45-30 at the 2:20 mark.
The lead had ballooned to 48-30 by the end of the quarter, with Flournoy scoring the final eight points for Oak Hill. A jumper in the paint by Flournoy — his 10th straight point for his team — left the score at 50-32 with 6:38 to go in the contest. Keyser never threatened in the final period.
“It’s good to win,” Oak Hill coach Fred Ferri said. “I wasn’t very happy with the first half (particularly with his team’s work on the offensive glass).
“DeAndré made a big difference. ... He turned the tide of the game for us.”
“Coach told me I had to play smart, and I came out there and had open looks and knocked them down,” Leonard said.
Flournoy and Leonard credited any success they have in the tournament to summer conditioning.
“We worked out a lot,” Flournoy said. Of his output Wednesday, he said it “just fell my way.”
“We worked hard,” Leonard added. “I told Coach that we’re not going to lose in overtime this year (the Devils suffered a 40-38 OT loss to Ravenswood in the semifinals a year ago).”
“Oak Hill’s got a good ball club,” Keyser coach Gary Liston said. “We knew coming in their big three scorers were Wright, Flournoy and No. 3 (Leonard).
“We tried to zone them as long as we could. (Noah Smith) hit a couple of threes, and a couple of other players hit threes, so we had to play ’em man.”
Of the crucial surge, he said, “It was seven (the deficit) and I blinked and it was 15.”
Keyser (13-11) was led by 11 points from Wes Washington. The Golden Tornado shot just 22.6 percent from the floor.
Despite shooting only 35.7 percent (10-of-28) in the opening half and never establishing much of an inside presence, the Devils twice built leads of 14 points in the first two periods. The first 14-point lead, 22-8, came at the 5:37 mark of the second frame on the second of two Smith three-pointers, this one off a Thomas Booth steal and assist. The second spread, 23-9, came on a Wright free throw with 4:38 to go.
However, Keyser — which shot an arctic 17.6 percent (6-of-34) in the first half — rallied somewhat as intermission approached. A 7-0 run trimmed the deficit to 23-16 before the Devils took a 30-19 spread into the locker room.
“We gave up 19 points at half, so our defense was OK,” Ferri said.
“We’re not a good perimeter shooting team,” Liston said. “It’s hard to win when you score 38 points.”
Oak Hill’s tipoff against Weir on Friday is at 9:30 a.m.
Ferri said his team will have to play “considerably better” to get by Weir (19-3), which got 22 points from Shawn Burns and 21 from L.J. Campbell in getting by Sissonville. “We had 15 turnovers (today). If we don’t play better, we’ll double that Friday.”
OAK HILL 63, KEYSER 38
KEYSER (13-11)
Pratt 2-11 3-4 8, Hines 1-2 0-0 2, Hartman 3-12 3-5 9, Ross 1-5 0-2 2, Washington 4-12 2-5 11, Nelson 0-0 0-0 0, Amtower 0-2 0-0 0, Fertig 1-5 0-0 2, Thorne 1-4 0-0 2, Larue 0-3 0-0 0, Halbritter 1-4 0-0 2, Evans 0-2 0-0 0, Clay 0-0 0-0 0, Jones 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-62 8-16 38.
OAK HILL (19-4)
Leonard 6-11 0-0 14, Booth 1-3 0-0 3, Flournoy 7-14 4-7 19, Colon 2-5 2-2 6, Wright 2-8 8-11 12, Holliday 0-0 0-0 0, Nuckels 0-1 0-0 0, Elam 0-0 0-0 0, Smith 2-6 0-0 6, Carroll 0-1 0-0 0, Lilly 1-1 0-0 3, Garris 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-51 14-20 63.
K 6 13 11 8 — 38
OH 16 14 18 15 — 63
3-Point Goals—Keyser 2-19 (Washington 1-3, Pratt 1-6, Larue 0-1, Hines 0-1, Evans 0-1, Halbritter 0-2, Ross 0-2, Hartman 0-3), Oak Hill 7-18 (Leonard 2-4, Smith 2-5, Lilly 1-1, Booth 1-2, Flournoy 1-3, Nuckels 0-1, Colon 0-2). Fouled out—Hartman. Rebounds—Keyser 36 (Hartman 10), Oak Hill 53 (Leonard 13). Assists—Keyser 9 (Washington 5), Oak Hill 12 (Booth, Leonard 5). Total fouls—Keyser 17, Oak Hill 18. A—5,656 (early session).
