Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

CALERA – The Oak Mountain Eagles had an unfortunate end to area play, dropping their final four area games to fall into fourth place in Class 7A, Area 5. Before that challenging road test at Hoover in the area semifinals though, they took care of business in their penultimate regular season game.

Oak Mountain defeated the Calera Eagles 48-37 on Tuesday, Jan. 28 at Calera High School to sweep the season series against their local foes.

Oak Mountain began the game looking for answers from behind the arc, and while the majority of their shots fell by the wayside, Chase Lamey, Patton Knight and Will O’Dell each hit 3-pointers to help their team in the early minutes of the game.

Calera also had limited success from the field to start but went 5-for-5 from the free throw line to keep the game close. Oak Mountain then took a 15-10 lead into the second quarter.

Coach Joel Floyd’s team opted to shoot the ball more inside the paint during the second but still only shot 50 percent on 2-point field goals. Nevertheless, it was enough to match Calera’s nine-point offensive output in the second and take a five-point lead into the break with the score at 24-19.

Oak Mountain remained in front during the third quarter as it just outpaced Calera in the opening minutes of the half. Knight and Will Patterson each made 3-pointers in a low-scoring period while Calera answered with baskets from Garrett Mahone, Darion Hamilton and Devyn Goodman.

Oak Mountain took a 34-28 lead into the fourth quarter and continued to build off it from there.

Calera scored just nine points in the fourth despite a big trio of baskets from Kegan Johnson. Lamey helped put the game away with a pair of 3-pointers to give Oak Mountain the double-digit win.

Patterson led Oak Mountain with 12 points while Knight joined him in double figures with 10 points. Lamey earned nine points, Blake Benson had five points and O’Dell and Kasen Lemons each finished with four points.

Hamilton had Calera’s team-high of 12 points as Johnson, Mahone, and Goodman each scored eight points.