By SETH HAGAN | For the Reporter

NORTH SHELBY – The Oak Mountain Eagles opened their holiday tournament with their 10th win of the 2018-19 season and made a case for a top 10 ranking after dominating the Briarwood Christian Lions, the No. 3 team in 5A, from start to finish at home, 58-40.

The Eagles (11-4) were already garnering votes for consideration, but this performance may well push them over the edge after they took a big lead early and cruised to victory.

“I thought defensively we thought going into the game we needed to defend and rebound and that would kind of be the start for us,” said Eagles’ head coach Chris Love. “So I was really, really pleased with how we defended and rebounded, our effort was good and we played with a high level of intensity which was great to see.”

Oak Mountain came out on their home floor clicking on all cylinders, both on offense and defense. Their crisp passing broke down the Lions’ 2-3 zone and gave the Eagles’ shooters good looks as they hit multiple 3-pointers in each quarter of the game.

However, the real star of the show was the defense. The Eagles forced 10 turnovers in the first half and didn’t allow a single basket until 4:25 in the second quarter.

By then, Briarwood (8-4) was in an 18-0 hole on the road. Zane Nelson got hot toward the end of the first quarter and scored seven straight points for Oak Mountain into the second quarter to cap the 18-point lead.

“Zane has really stepped up his game, he’s always been a really good player, but he’s now becoming a more solid player,” Love said. “He’s shooting the ball well for us and the thing I’m really proud of is he’s defending really well.”

Briarwood finally found their footing scoring seven straight and eventually cut the lead to 21-11, but the Eagles surged again toward the end of the half scoring the last five points—all from Nelson including a three before time expired off a nifty mid-air pass from Drew Dunn.

Oak Mountain scored 10 straight points between the end of the second quarter and the beginning of the third, growing the lead to 20. The Lions whittled it back down to 15, but the Eagles ignited a huge burst from long range connecting on four straight threes to end the third quarter and blow the game wide open with a 14-4 run.

Dunn hit three of his four 3-pointers in the third quarter to lead OMHS to a very comfortable 47-22 lead heading into the last period.

“Drew is our guy and the face of our program,” Love said. “He’s a hard-nosed, tough son of a gun and didn’t shoot well in the first half, but we always tell him to keep shooting and he hit some big shots for us in the second half.”

The lead rose as high as 27 before the Eagles turned to ball control offense.

Briarwood finally found their footing with a 15-3 run in the middle of the quarter, but it was too little too late. Nelson led all scorers with 16 while Dunn scored all 12 of his points in the second half.

Zac Nuyt led Briarwood with 10 points while Jack Dicen and Chance Beard added eight points each.