South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Oakville girls’ basketball team wins first district championship since 2009

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By Robert Chalupny
For the Call

Update: The Tigers lost to Kirkwood in the sectional championship 49-40 Wednesday.

The Oakville High School girls’ varsity basketball team squeezed out a narrow victory over Webster Groves Friday night to claim the Tigers’ first district title since 2009.

Oakville topped the Statesmen 61-60 in an exciting back-and-forth contest with the Tigers taking control in the fourth quarter, outscoring Webster 20-6.

The win was the team’s third consecutive, and the Tigers have won 10 of their last 11 games.

Oakville head coach Laura Bishop told the Call that the strategy for the district game was simple and the team executed it.

“Basically, we talked a lot about containing Webster on the three-point line, and offensively we knew that we just needed everybody to score. And we wanted to attack the basket,” she said.

The Tigers did just that, but unintentionally, it was just the starters who saw all the action.

“I only played five people the entire game. My starting five played the entire game, which I didn’t do on purpose,” Bishop said. “I didn’t even realize it happened until after the game was over and I think four of them were in double figures.

“Taylor Zarr had the most with 24 (points). Emily Kuntze had eight assists, which was huge, (and) Angela Elguezabal led us in rebounds. Even though I only played five people on Friday night, we have 12 people on our roster and all 12 are an important part of the team.”

The Tigers are now 18-8 on the season, and their success can be attributed to a great team chemistry, according to Bishop.

“All I can tell you is the girls play really well together,” she said. “They get along well. This is the first year I’ve had in a long time — I mean there have been no issues.

“All they do is show up to play basketball and they have fun and they enjoy each others’ company.”

The Tigers will need to be firing on all cylinders for their next challenger, as they were set to face 24-3 Kirkwood Wednesday evening — after the Call went to press.

“Well, we play Kirkwood on Wednesday, which I’ve been watching film all day,” Bishop said. “And we’re going to have to be able to handle their pressure, which is huge, and we are going to have to be able to score, handle their three-point shooting and control the rebounding.”

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