HS Boys Basketball: Oak Ridge comes up short against Klein

OAK RIDGE, TX -- Nothing comes easy in District 15-6A, especially when you’re on the road. Klein, the district’s leader, found that out the hard way in their 62-56 win over Oak Ridge on Friday night.

While they haven’t had a successful year, It was clear the War Eagles were locked in for this game and had no plans of backing down to the one-loss Bearkats. Oak Ridge jumped out to 9-2 lead right from the opening tip-off. The Ridge found space inside and out to get off to a hot start, but just as quickly as they went on a run, Klein answered with a big momentum swing of their own to take back the lead.

This was the theme of the entire night, as Oak Ridge always kept Klein under pressure, but could never stretch a lead out far enough to hold off the Bearkats. Despite some nice three-point shooting in the first half from Marco Limon, Klein went into the locker room at halftime with a 27-24 lead.

The second half was scrappy and both teams traded their best shots, but the difference maker over the last two quarters would be Klein’s resiliency and Oak Ridge’s shot selection and foul trouble. The War Eagles always kept the game close, but whenever there was an opportunity to take over after putting Klein back on their heels, out of rhythm shots and bad fouls allowed the Bearkats to retake control. The shots that Oak Ridge did hit however were a combination of tough, physical finishes at the rim by Alton McCaskill and Ian Egele and more three-point sharpshooting from Limon to go into the fourth trailing Klein by just one.

With the game’s intensity at its peak, both teams continued to trade buckets with the momentum constantly swinging back and forth. In clutch time, Marco Limon and Klein’s Tyson Thompson flourished. The two traded highlight-reel moments down the stretch as Limon, who finished with 19 points, ignited the crowd from behind the arc and Thompson attacked the rim to score and draw fouls. Once again, Klein showed why they are at the top of the district table, finding a way to hold off Oak Ridge in the final seconds to pick up their eighth-straight win.

Next up for Oak Ridge (2-11) is a road game at Conroe, while Klein (11-1) will host the district’s 2nd place team, College Park.

Marco Limon post-game interview

Coach Cloudy post-game interview