Oakland’s Jaleen Lyons goes up for a shot in the first half of the game as Spring Hill’s Keidron McAllister guards Lyons during the game at Oakland on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014.
MURFREESBORO Oakland got back in sync Tuesday night.
And the Patriots rolled past Spring Hill.
Oakland, which had lost two of its past three games, routed the Raiders 65-31 at Randy King Gymnasium.
“We had to come out with intensity,” said Oakland junior Jarrell Reeves. “We had lacked it this weekend. We came in and practiced (Monday). We got our football players back, so that helped. We came in with intensity.”
A 56-48 loss to Independence on Nov. 25 and a 52-45 loss to Livingston Academy on Nov. 29 sandwiched a narrow 57-53 victory over Columbia on Nov. 28 in the Lebanon Classic.
None of Oakland’s basketball players that also play football have suited up this season. However, that should change next week with the start of District 7-AAA play.
Oakland (4-2) opens league play on Dec. 9 when it hosts Stewarts Creek, which features dominant post Jy’lan Washington. The Patriots then play at defending Class AAA state champion Blackman on Dec. 12.
“For whatever reason, I don’t think we played well last week,” Oakland coach Mike Wright said. “It was nice to have this game to come back out and clean things up and get that intensity up and prepare ourselves for district play.
“We have a few days to prepare for Stewarts Creek.”
The Patriots dominated the paint with Reeves, a 6-foot-5 forward, and senior teammate Ricky Dunnaway, a 6-7 center. Reeves led the Patriots with 16 points. Dunnaway collected 11 in the paint.
“That’s who we are,” Wright said. “We are a post-dominant team. We like our guard play, but we want to play through our posts. And our guards played really well off our post game.
Guard Jaleen Lyons, a lanky 6-1 senior, had nine points in the contest. T.J. Steward hit a pair of 3-pointers in the game and Cooper Baughn also hit a trey.
Keidron McAllister led Spring Hill with 16 points.
Steward’s 3-pointer to open the second half gave the Patriots a 39-21 lead. The Patriots’ lead never dipped below 14.
Oakland’s defense held the Raiders without a field goal in the final quarter. All 11 players in Oakland’s scorebook scored at least two points in the contest.
Contact Tom Kreager at 615-278-5168 or tkreager@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kreager.
Oakland 65, Spring Hill 31
Spring Hill 9 12 8 2 – 31
Oakland 20 12 13 20 – 65
Spring Hill: DeEric Burgett 2, Rodrigo Valadez 1, Keidron McAllister 16, Noah Mayes 3, Tylin Oden 2, Dre Smith 2, Alex Harrison 5.
Oakland: Khalil Yarbrough 2, Jarrell Reeves 16, Logan Gallagher 2, Cam Hughes 4, Jaleen Lyons 9, Cooper Baughn 7, T.J. Steward 6, Tre Jones 4, Coby Grubbs 2, John Thomas 2, Ricky Dunnaway 11.
Oakland’s Jaleen Lyons goes up for a shot in the first half of the game as Spring Hill’s Keidron McAllister guards Lyons during the game at Oakland on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014.
Oakland’s Jarrell Reeves goes up for a shot in the first half of the game as Spring Hill’s Tylin O’Den guards Reeves during the game at Oakland on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014.