By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – With just less than three minutes left in the first quarter of Chelsea’s game at Oak Mountain on Dec. 10, Aaron Washington hit a three to put the Hornets up 11-6. Chelsea had found an early offensive rhythm and was knocking down open jump shots and had jumped out to a nice five-point advantage early away from its home gym.

The next field goal the Hornets scored was with a minute and 15 seconds left in the first half, making the score 32-16 in favor of Oak Mountain. Chelsea did recover in the third and brought the game back to within six, but had dug too deep of a hole to climb out of as the Eagles moved to 6-4 on the season with a 61-46 win.

A combination of factors led to Oak Mountain going on a 24-0 run that spanned the better part of 10 minutes of game action. The Eagles’ superior size was one. Payton Youngblood was able to crash the offensive glass with ease particularly during the first period, which led to a number of second chance points for Oak Mountain. But the biggest factor was the defensive intensity with which Oak Mountain played for the duration of the second quarter. A hyper-aggressive man-to-man full-court press on the part of the Eagles led to numerous turnovers and general chaos for Chelsea.

Halfway through the second quarter, Chelsea head coach Nicholas Baumbaugh pulled his starters and sent in his second unit. Oak Mountain then switched to a half-court, 2-1-2 zone defense that completely baffled the Chelsea offense. Not only did the Hornets not score for almost the whole second quarter, they didn’t get many good looks, either. Defensively, Chelsea had a tough time closing out shooters on the perimeter, which led to open looks and easy buckets.

Finally, Matt Marquet stemmed the bleeding. His two free throws and a driving bucket that came late in the period, combined with another late Washington three and a few free throws from Jay Vickers and Chelsea went into the half only down 34-21 after it all.

The Oak Mountain defense could not keep up the intensity and aggressiveness it showed in the second quarter for the duration of the game, and Chelsea began to claw back in the third quarter. The Hornets began finding seams in Oak Mountain’s zone and began knocking down a few open looks. Oak Mountain, by comparison, also went cold from the field and couldn’t buy a bucket. After Sam Towery hit a three for Chelsea and Marquet hit a tough bucket inside late in the third, all of a sudden the Hornets only trailed by six at 39-33.

Marquet found Washington on the low block on the next Chelsea possession in the seam of the Oak Mountain defense, but Washington missed a tough inside bucket and Will Stephenson promptly nailed a three on the other end for the Eagles, stretching the lead back to 42-33, and Chelsea never truly threatened again as Oak Mountain got the home win by a 61-46 final.

Washington led Chelsea with 13 and was the only player in double figures for Chelsea while Stephenson led all scorers with 15 and was the only player in doubles figures for Oak Mountain as well.