Hill’s 30 point effort powers No. 13 Oakland Mills girls past Patterson

The Oakland Mills girls basketball team struggled to a 45-41 win over visiting Western Tech on Tuesday in the semifinal round of the Oakland Mills Holiday Tournament.

On Wednesday, junior guard Kara Hight made sure the No. 13 Scorpions didn’t have another slow start against Patterson, as she scored 15 first quarter points to power the host team to a 68-42 victory to claim their own title.

“Kara got off to a good start for us,” said Oakland Mills coach Seth Willingham.  “They went into a box-and-one on her.  We have a couple of other shooters and once they got going, it opened things up for us offensively.”

“It starts in warm-ups really, it carries over into the first quarter and if you keep it going, it will keep flowing throughout the game,” Hight said of her pregame preparation.  “It was really important for us to come out and show what we really can do.”

Hight hit three consecutive three-pointers to start the contest and outscored the Clippers, 15-10, by herself in the first quarter.

She finished with 22 points, while forward Jasmine Hill added 30 points and 12 rebounds for the Scorpions (7-3 overall).  Guard Brianna Taylor added 10 assists to go with four points.

“Yesterday, we did not play well at all,” said Hill. “I fouled out in that game so it was really good that we came back and I came back strong.  We wanted to show that even though we won by four points, we are better than we showed.”

Patterson, which beat Parkville 50-44 in the semifinal round, was led by Towson-bound point guard Ciara Webb.   Webb scored a team-high 26 points and Shakel McNeil added 12 points.  McNeil was named to the All-Tournament team along with Hight and Hill.

Thanks to their hot shooting from beyond the arc, the Scorpions ran out to a 22-10 advantage after one quarter and led 39-20 at the break.

The Clippers outscored Oakland Mills, 16-13, the third quarter.  A three-pointer by Webb cut the score to 50-36 but Patterson (7-2) would get no closer.  The Scorpions went on a 16-0 run to put the game out of reach.

“I expected tonight’s game to be a bit more competitive but we forgot to show up,” said Patterson coach Kelly Bagdasarian.  “My two girls that made the all-tournament team played extremely well.”

Webb, despite being on the losing team, was named the Tournament’s MVP.

“She’s a beast,” Willingham said.  “We put a box-and-one on her, we had a hand in her face and that is the best you can do because she’s going to hit shots…She’s going to have a great career.”

Both teams will take the rest of the holiday break off and return to their respective league competition next week.

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