Ellis leads Oak Hill past Prairie View

Southern Sports & Travel

Oak Hill proved to be too much for Prairie View in yesterday’s round two matchup between ranked girls teams at the Class AA North State Tournament in Batesville. The sixth ranked Lady Raiders shook off a sluggish start to totally dominate the tenth ranked Lady Spartans 63-38.

Oak Hill senior Tori Ellis rolled up a game high 27 points in the win which sets up a semi-final game with tournament host North Delta this afternoon.

Prairie View looked ready to give Oak Hill all they wanted early on as the Lady Spartans got out to a 6-4 lead following a Victoria Simmons 8 foot jumper from the baseline with just under three minutes gone in the opening quarter.

Prairie View’s lead was short-lived as Oak Hill ran off eight straight points to take a 12-6 lead at the 4:00 mark.

(Above) Shay Atkins (#30) of Oak Hill goes up for 2 of her 10 points on the night

Prairie View pulled to within two points at 16-14 on Dani Anderson’s jumper with 43 seconds left in the opening quarter but Oak Hill senior Tori Ellis went glass with 36 seconds remaining and canned a 3-pointer from the wing with 9 seconds on the clock to send the Lady Raiders into the second quarter with a 21-14 advantage.

Dani Anderson’s driving lay-in to start the second quarter pulled PVA to within five points at 21-16 but Oak Hill’s defense started forcing turnovers and the Lady Raiders capitalized on them.

Lauren Billington’s baseline jumper off a PVA turnover stretched the lead to 23-16 and Maegan Ellis converted in the paint as Oak Hill cashed in on another PVA turnover to extend the lead to 25-16 with less than two minutes gone in the quarter.

Oak Hill pushed their lead to 38-21 on a Tori Ellis 3-pointer from the wing at the 3:09 mark. The Lady Raiders took a 41-28 lead into the half.

Oak Hill’s pressure defense limited Prairie View to two baskets in the third quarter and the Lady Raiders went up 49-32 on a Tori Ellis 3-pointer with 3 seconds left in the third quarter to extend their lead to 49-32.

Oak Hill would outscore Prairie View 14-6 in the final quarter as they coasted to a 63-38 win to improve to 26-8 on the season.

“Our intensity level was good,” said Oak Hill head coach Stan Hughey. “We played well in the first half but I was a little upset with our turnovers early on. We want to play fast and push the basketball and we were successful in doing that.”

On Tori Ellis’ performance Hughey said, “Tori is such a good player and she’s so competitive. Tonight she looked for her shot and played very well on both ends.”

Ellis (photo right) led Oak Hill with 27 points, Shay Atkins added 10, Maegan Ellis 9, Sophie Miller 5, Lauren Billington and Rachel Herdon 3 apiece, Susan Mitchell and Lexie Harden had 2 each and Anna Ready and Codi Williams 1 each.

Dani Anderson led Prairie View (24-7) with 17 points, Kristen Oliphant and Victoria Simmons had 6 each, Molly Gregory 5 and Kristin Hindrix and Erika Guerrero 2 apiece.

Oak Hill will take on fourth ranked North Delta this afternoon. This will be the fourth meeting between the two. “They’ve beaten us twice this season and we’ve beat them once,” said Hughey. “They’re as good an offensive team along with Leake that we’ve seen all season but our girls look forward to the challenge.”