Oakleaf- Tuesday night featured a rematch between Oakleaf and Bishop Kenny. Oakleaf won the previous match up by 20 points but Bishop Kenny played without two of their top three players, Jasmyne Roberts and Jamia Nesmith. Both teams played man to man defense for the entire game which created some exciting match ups. At times, you had Taliah Scott against Jasmyne Roberts and Fantasia James against Jamia Nesmith. James showed her versatility as a defender as she also matched up against Roberts in the game.
Roberts got the scoring started for Bishop Kenny with an easy basket off a set play called by Coach Clark. Oakleaf quickly took control of the scoring with three 3’s made by James, Scott and Durante putting them up 11-5 with 5 minutes left in the first quarter. Bishop Kenny ramped up their defense and settled in offensively as they got a big 3 from Maddie Millar to close the gap to 10-13 with 2:45 left in the quarter. Oakleaf called a timeout and James hit her 2nd 3-pointer out of the set play called by Coach Cole. The quarter ended in a 16-16 tie.
Tough defense from both teams caused sloppy play and forced turnovers to begin the second quarter. It was a clean first half though as not many fouls were called on either team. After the initial sloppy play to begin the quarter, Bishop Kenny took control of the game scoring on almost every play. They were up 21-16 with 5:06 left in the half. Yet Oakleaf continued to play tough defense which forced Bishop Kenny into a timeout. Coach Clark called a nice out of bounds play to get Sydney Roundtree an easy layup off a back screen. Bishop Kenny controlled the entire second quarter as they got layup after layup while Oakleaf settled for three’s and couldn’t convert any of them. Bishop Kenny held Oakleaf to just 3 points and took a ten point lead into the half, 29-19.
Oakleaf started the second half strong with 6 quick points on a steal, foul on a layup and 1 for Kayla Turner and a 3-pointer from Durante to close the gap to 25-29. Unfortunately, they couldn’t sustain the momentum and it was more of the same for Bishop Kenny as they held Oakleaf to only 2 points for the remainder of the 3rd quarter and led 42-27. Oakleaf kept fighting in the 4th quarter as Taliah Scott was finally able to make a few baskets finishing with 11 points. Up until that point, Scott had been held to one basket largely in part due to the defense of Ivy Saig. She was the primary defender on Scott the entire game. She had help though, as another defender was always close by anytime Scott appeared to have an opening. Oakleaf’s comeback came up short as they were never able to get the deficit lower than 9 points in the 4th quarter and Bishop Kenny iced the game at the free throw line to win the game 54-40.
Jasmyn Roberts scored 20 points, Maddie Millar added 15 points, and Jamia Nesmith in the big win over Oakleaf Kenny improved to 14-9 and made a statement reminding everyone that they were still the team to beat. The defending Class 4A Runner-Up take on First Coast (4-8) Thursday. With the best record in the area, Oakleaf (17-2) will look to rebound against University Christian (8-11). Geniyah Durante and Fantasia James both finished with 11 points. Their game on Wednesday was cancelled due to a weather advisory.
Featured Image by onethree_photography
