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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

GULF SHORES – The Oak Mountain Eagles started off their Thanksgiving week with a trip to the beach and came back from the gulf coast with three wins and a trophy in hand.

Oak Mountain defeated the Daphne Trojans 77-74 on Tuesday, Nov. 26 in Gulf Shores to claim the Battle of the Beach championship.

The Eagles kicked off their tournament with a 65-54 win over the McGill-Toolen Catholic Yellow Jackets on Saturday, Nov. 23.

Chase Lamey dominated for Oak Mountain with 27 points while three other players came on the cusp of double figures. Will Patterson and Blake Benson each scored nine points and Rocco Plaia had eight points in the first-round win.

That gave way for a dominant performance two days later against North Sand Mountain. The Eagles rolled to a 70-51 win in the semifinals to punch their ticket to the championship game.

Three Oak Mountain players cracked double figures as Benson led the way with 17 points, Lamey scored 14 points and Patton Knight had 11 points. Patterson nearly made it four but still turned in a solid nine-point showing.

That set up a Class 7A battle for the championship as the Eagles took on the Daphne Trojans.

It was a high-scoring first quarter between the two teams as they came out of the gate looking to get points on the board.

Oak Mountain went 10-for-12 from the field in the first quarter, including 11 points from Lamey, 10 from Patterson and five from Knight as they continued to more than make up for the absence of Chris Kunard.

That countered a 21-point quarter from the Trojans and gave the Eagles a 26-21 led at the end of one quarter of play.

The breakneck offensive pace did not last for long as the scoring slowed down in the second quarter, but both teams still found the bottom of the net with regularity.

Lamey continued to lead the way with six more points before halftime, and Oak Mountain once again outpaced Daphne, winning the second quarter 16-13 to make the halftime lead 42-34.

The Eagles continued to hit shots around the court, including a pair of deep ball from Lamey and a solid collective free throw shooting performance. The Trojans kept hanging around though, ever so slightly chipping into the lead to leave the deficit at 62-50 heading into the fourth.

That set the table for Daphne to make its move and surge back in the final eight minutes.

Baskets from the field became hard to come by for the Eagles as the Trojans made it a one-possession game late.

However, Oak Mountain held on thanks in part to a 6-for-6 performance from the charity stripe by Plaia after he didn’t score in any of the first three quarters.

In the end, the Eagles held on for the three-point win to secure the championship.

Lamey led the way with 28 points, and Patterson also broke the 20-point mark with 22 points for himself. Knight scored seven points, Plaia and Jake Hartsfield each had six points apiece and Benson scored five points in the title-clinching win.

With the win, Oak Mountain improves to 9-0 on the season. The Eagles will look to stay undefeated when they host Homewood on Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 2 p.m. for an in-school game.