Story by: Scott Dubois—
In a battle of grant county and Central Indiana Conference rivals Oak Hill defeated visiting Madison Grant 61-43 in boys’ basketball action Friday night
This game was played by two teams with very contrasting styles of play. The 3rd ranked in 2AGolden Eagles wanted to play at a very quick pace that emphasizes their advantages in length and size. The Argylls on the other hand wanted to us a slower deliberate style that used good ballhandling and passing. The beginning of the game was like two boxers testing each other and there were not points scored in first two and a half minutes. At this point Oak Hill forced some Argyll turnovers that fueled an offensive nine point spurt to take a 9-2 lead. The rest of the quarter was played at the Madison Grant tempo, but the Eagles maintained a six point advantage 14-8 to end the first quarter. The second quarter continued at a slower pace, but the Argylls could not gain any ground as the Eagles held the halftime lead at 22-16.
In the second the Eagles would impose their will offensively behind juniors David Arens and Spencer Ballinger. By increasing the speed of the game and getting the ball inside the Argyll defense, Oak Hill slowly increased their lead to 42-27 to close the third quarter. In the final stanza sophomore Wyatt Rudy and senior Garrett Watson tried to lead a Madison Grant comeback, but they came up short as the Golden Eagles proved too strong as they cruised to a 61-43 victory. Ballinger and Arens led Oak Hill in scoring with 22 and 18 points each. Ballinger grabbed seven rebounds and junior Tyce Franks dished out 10 assists. Rudy was the scoring leader for Madison Grant for the ninth time on the season with 20 points. Watson contributed 11 points and six assists while sophomore Tucker Robertson was the rebound leader with four.
Oak Hill pushes their record to 14-2 on the season and will host Eastern on Thursday. Madison Grant falls to 7-7 and will travel to Bluffton on Saturday.
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