The words “anterior cruciate ligament injury” can bring an unsettling feeling to any coach.
Ron Thompson, the Oakville Senior High School girls’ basketball coach, had that feeling when senior forward Molly Zehner went down earlier this month with a torn ACL.
The senior forward was averaging seven points and 6.7 rebounds a game this season while also racking up 10 steals, seven assists and three blocked shots. Zehner is undergoing rehabilitation, but Thompson believes that her season may be over.
“She’s trying to do some therapy, but it’s not looking good,” he told the Call. “We’re now in a position where we have to ask more from our younger girls and we also have to ask the seniors to take on different roles.”
The Tigers (4-1, 1-0 Suburban West) have yet to skip a beat as they downed Parkway North 43-42 on Dec. 12 and smashed Parkway South 67-51 on Friday.
“I think that defensively, we’ve been playing extremely well, Thompson said. “We had trouble scoring against Parkway North, but got our offense going against Parkway South.”
Against Parkway South, the Tigers jumped out to a 20-10 after one quarter and held on to a 34-24 lead at halftime.
Oakville extended its lead to 49-35 by the end of the third quarter before putting the Patriots away in the fourth quarter en route to the win.
The Tigers were led by junior forward Nicole Norberg and sophomore guard Maggie Zehner, who each scored 15 points. Zehner also tied for the team lead in rebounds with eight and assists with four.
“Maggie’s our energy source and she puts all kinds of pressure on the other team’s point guard,” Thompson said. “We also had a lot of success out there with Nicole.”
Oakville’s Andrea Boone also scored in double figures with 13 points and eight rebounds. In addition, the sophomore guard recorded two steals and one assist in the win over Parkway South.
“Andrea played probably her strongest game of the year for us,” Thompson said. “She had been getting into foul trouble lately and couldn’t get into the rhythm of the game.”
Sophomore forward Kelly Gallagher was the fourth Oakville player to score in double figures with a 10-point performance that included eight rebounds, two steals and one assist.”
“Kelly’s someone that we expected to get a lot out of as a backup player,” Thompson said. “But with Molly (Zehner) out, she’s done a really good job these past two games.”
The Tigers are back in action Tuesday when they take on Triad in the first round of the Lutheran South Invitational.
“There should be some pretty good teams in this tournament,” Thompson said. “I don’t know a whole lot about Triad, but hopefully, I’ll get out and see them this next week.”
