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Naylor's strong second half finishes Oran in sectional
BLOOMFIELD -- For most of the first half it looked like Oran was going to threaten Class 1 power-house Naylor's five-year winning streak in the local sectional.
A strong finish to the second quarter, followed by a dominant second half however saw Naylor book their sixth-straight trip to the quarterfinals with a 59-31 final Tuesday at Bloomfield High School.
"Their constant pressure wears on you," Oran head coach Ethan Evans said of Naylor. "They were able to distance themselves from us. Once you get behind to this team, they're so good and so well coached and take care of the basketball extremely well that it's hard to get back in the game."
Oran came out of the gates rolling with a 7-1 start that caused Naylor to burn a timeout and regroup. An 11-2 Naylor run ensued and they maintained a four-point edge midway through the second quarter.
Oran's hopes took a hit soon after as Naylor closed out the half on an 8-3 run that gave them a nine-point advantage, 30-21, heading into halftime.
Part of Oran's late first half troubles came from fouls, including primary ball-handler Allie Cummins picking up three early ones and sitting out most the second quarter where Naylor outscored them 18-10.
"That second quarter Allie picked up her third foul we were trying to stay with her," Evans said. "That hurt us with her coming off the floor and they jumped out and got us seven or eight points. Their pressure is outstanding. When you're as long as they are you just have to try to attack it. When you do somebody else who's 5-10 to 5-11 is standing there waiting. They're pressure made a whale of a difference on us."
There'd be no reprieve in the second half for Oran despite closing to within six points in the opening minutes of the third quarter.
A basket by Hannah Scherer kept it a six-point game with 5:24 left in the third quarter, but Naylor dominated from there on out.
Following Scherer's bucket, Oran was held to three points in the final 13-plus minutes of the game. This included a 16-0 run by Naylor that put them ahead by as many as 22 points with four minutes left in the contest.
A Kaylen Glastetter 3-pointer with 3:45 to play broke up Oran's 10 minute scoring drought, but by then Naylor had the game in hand. Naylor outscored Oran a combined 29-10 in the second half.
"Everybody talks about how big we are, but they overlooked some of our quickness," Naylor head coach Gene Deckard said. "When we got control of the game we spread them out and Brooklyn took over. There's a lot of people who haven't had an answer for Brooklyn once we spread them out."
Naylor spread the ball around as Shayna Tharp led a group of three double-digit scorers with a game-high 15 points. Kabrien Rogers and Callee Pickrell scored 11 points each and Madison Gargac and Lauren Rich added nine points each to Naylor's cause.
On adjusting to Oran's early success, Deckard said, "We knew Cummins had three (fouls) and when we spread them out she's have to come out and guard. She picked up four, but once we got that lead we came out of halftime and was pounding it inside.
"They were trying to play some kind of box on Shayna, but we moved in and Shayna went back-door a few times, caught the ball and drove to the bucket. That three in, two out with the big girls is pretty hard to handle on a Class 1 scale."
For Oran, who finishes the season with a 14-11 record, Scherer scored a team-high nine points. Glastetter and Cummins added seven and six points respectively.
Naylor moves on to play Chadwick, 67-53 winners over Bunker, during the quarterfinals Saturday at Van Buren High School at 2:45 p.m.
| Naylor | 12 | 18 | 13 | 16 | -- | 59 |
| Oran | 11 | 10 | 7 | 3 | -- | 31 |
NAYLOR (59) -- Madison Gargac 9, Shayna Tharp 15, Lauren Rich 9, Kabrien Rogers 11, Callee Pickrell 11, Brooklyn Urich 4. FG 25, FT 7-12, F 10. (3-pointers: Tharp 1, Rich 1. Fouled out: none.)
ORAN (31) -- Allie Cummins 6, Brianna Stause 5, Tatum May 2, Ashlyn McIntosh 2, Kaylen Glastetter 7, Hannah Scherer 9. FG 13, FT 2-4, F 15. (3-pointers: Cummins 1, Stause 1, Glastetter 1. Fouled out: none.)