Even in the midst of a losing skid, LaRon Brumfield’s message to his Oak Grove Warrior basketball team very seldom changes.
“Play hard. Don’t be worried about winning or losing. Just play hard.”
It worked Tuesday night. In front of a standing-room only crowd, the Warriors snapped their three-game losing streak and won a thriller over rival Hattiesburg, 67-63.
“We needed it, man,” Brumfield said. “We needed something to go good for us.”
All it took was surviving a furious Hattiesburg comeback. After trailing by as much as 13 in Tuesday’s second quarter, the Tigers fought back to eventually take the lead in the fourth. Several lead changes ensued.
But the final and most important one came when Blake Roberts connected on the shot of the game for Oak Grove, a 3-pointer with 43 seconds left which gave the Warriors the lead, 64-63.
“He’s been shooting the ball so well,” Brumfield said of Roberts. “When we called that timeout, we wanted to make sure we got him in.”
“That was a big shot.”
Made free throws from Noah Harris and Kelvin McGruder sealed the win for Oak Grove in the final seconds. To build a big lead, lose it and eventually grab it back in beating one of your biggest rivals, that’s pretty big, said Brumfield.
“I told the guys before the game it would be a game of runs. I said, ‘We’re going to make some, they’re going to make some. We gotta withstand, stay disciplined and just do what we do in giving ourselves a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter’.”
And that they did. Oak Grove improved to 11-10 overall with the win and was led by Harris’ team-high 14 points. McGruder and Roberts each added 12.
Hattiesburg, who fell to 14-7, was led by Darryl Jordan’s game-high 20 points.
Hattiesburg Lady Tigers 48, Oak Grove 34
The Lady Tigers and Lady Warriors played a back-and-forth contest for the first three quarters, but a lopsided fourth quarter allowed Hattiesburg to win by double digits. The Lady Tigers outscored Oak Grove 18-5 in the final period, picking up their 15th win of the season.
“A big thing was that I was on my girls about stepping up the defensive pressure and just being a little more aggressive on offense as far as getting to the basket,” Hattiesburg head coach Caronica DeBose Jackson said. “Penetrating the lane and getting the easy layups helped us extend our lead down the stretch.”
The win avenged a home loss earlier in the season to the Lady Warriors.
“They came in and got a win in our place,” Jackson added. “So our girls were really focused on coming over here and getting a win.”
Melyia Grayson led the way for Hattiesburg with 17 points, while Chelsea Ulmer added 10 for the Lady Tigers.
