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Oak Mountain's defensive pressure was constant throughout the game and led to a dominant win for the Eagles. (For the Reporter/Larry Dancy)

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The Oak Mountain Eagles continued an impressive start to the 2018-19 basketball season at home on Thursday, Nov. 15, with a dominant 50-23 victory against county foe Pelham.

The reason for that success was due to consistent efforts from Kailey Rory, Emily Cruce and Hannah Edwards, who all started the first quarter strong and helped the team throughout as the entire bench got to play the majority of the second half.

From the tip, Oak Mountain (3-1) was dominant jumping out to an 8-0 lead, before eventually going on a 19-2 run in the first quarter. Cruce, Edwards and Rory took turns having runs in that order as the three combined for 14 of the 19 points in the opening period.

Pelham (0-3) tried its best to answer the impressive start by Oak Mountain with a 10-3 start to the second quarter, which brought the Panthers to within 10 points at 22-12.

That’s when Cruce and Rory started playing well again and combined for 10 points the rest of the quarter to help the Eagles finish out the period on 14-0 run.

With that run, the Eagles were able to take control at halftime with a 36-12 advantage, that looked insurmountable.

Oak Mountain was able to empty the bench in the second half as everybody on the team got the opportunity to play starting in the third quarter, and while there were some deficiencies on offense, the defense continued its strong pressure.

The Eagles gave up just three points in the quarter, and all were earned at the free throw line from the Panthers who went 3-6 from the stipe in the period. Oak Mountain was able to extend its lead to 47-15 at the end of the frame thanks to 11 points on the offensive end of the floor.

With a hot clock in the final quarter, Oak Mountain posted just three points, while Pelham put up five thanks to more trips to the free throw line.

That wasn’t nearly enough though, as the Eagles picked up the 50-23 route at the sound of the final buzzer.

Cruce and Rory finished in double digits yet again with 11 points apiece, while 10 different players scored in all.

The Panthers were led by Myria Tate with 11 points in the loss.

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