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

Slow first-quarter starts dog Oakville girls’ basketball team

Lutheran High South tourney next up for Oakville High girls

Slow first-quarter starts have dogged the Oakville Senior High School girls’ basketball team this season.

Friday night’s 60-47 loss at home to Parkway South was an example of that struggle as Oakville (2-2, 0-1) fell behind 30-7 after the first quarter.

“They have a lot of good athletes, and our girls just didn’t come out with the same intensity that Parkway South did,” Oakville assistant head coach Aaron Bosch said. “We had a hard time breaking their press early on and we didn’t take care of the ball very well.”

The Tigers bounced back in the second quarter, outscoring the Patriots 13-9, but they still trailed Parkway South 39-20. Oakville outscored Parkway South 27-26 in the second half, but it was not enough to overcome the first-quarter deficit.

“We’ve trailed in the first 10 minutes of nearly every game this year,” Bosch said. “But I think they played a very good second quarter against them.”

Senior forward Nicole Norberg led the Tigers with 13 points and 13 rebounds. She also racked up four steals, one assist and one blocked shot.

“We’ve concentrated on feeding the ball inside early on so that she’ll be able to free up some outside shooters,” Bosch said. “She’s a real hard competitor and is tenacious on the rebounds.”

Freshman point guard Leslie DeGonia also scored in double figures with an 11-point performance that included two rebounds. DeGonia led the Tigers with four assists while recording two steals.

“Leslie is very good on defense where she wears people down and annoys them,” Bosch said. “She probably played the best game of anyone on the team.”

The Tigers are back in action at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 26, when they play in the Lutheran High School South Tournament.

The Oakville High team will face Lutheran South (1-5), which posted a 42-34 win over Lutheran North Friday night.

“Lutheran South has been extremely good the last couple of years, but they’ve graduated all five of their starters,” Bosch said.

“They’ve struggled early on, but we’ll have to play our best game because they’re a team that has a lot of tradition and they don’t like to lose,” the Oakville High assistant head coach added.

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