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Oak Hill Rolls Past Kecoughtan

"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Annually one of the top prep basketball programs in the
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country, the Oak Hill Warriors under the direction of
normal'>Steve Smith are a factory for producing College Basketball players
and future NBA talents. Every year they
are seemingly nationally ranked, contending for a mythical National
Championship.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>The Eastern Region has brought home 18 of the past 28
AAA State Championships, but a team from Tidewater hasn't played the mighty
giant that is Oak Hill until Woodside fell to them in a showcase in January of
2005 at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake.
Kecoughtan got the opportunity to play Oak
Hill on Thursday night at Heritage High School in Newport News.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Ranked fifth in the VirginiaPreps.com Preseason AAA
State Top 25, Kecoughtan was no match for a
powerhouse that has players committed to the ACC, Big Ten and SEC.
style=> Oak Hill overwhelmed the Peninsula District's
Warriors, 82-45, leading by as many as 41 points and only trailing after
class=SpellE>Kecoughtan scored the game's opening.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"Way too much size," Keceoughtan
Head Basketball Coach Ivan Thomas commented
of his team's matchup versus Oak Hill. "We're
not going to face anything like this again, and if I had a chance to do it
again, I would. My out-of-district
record when it comes to teams that I play like Montrose, Oak Hill and others,
it's not that great, but we're trying to build for later."
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Thomas, who guided the Warriors to the State Final Four
a season ago and won a state title at T.C. Williams in March of 2008, relied
heavily upon a couple of Division I College Basketball talents of his own in
6-foot-8 forward Rajay
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> Bullock and 6-foot-4 sharp shooting
swingman Greg Alexander, committed
to Providence and East Carolina respectively.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Alexander scored 14 points and Bullock chipped in 11
points. But the two were held to
8-for-27 shooting and ten rebounds total.
Compounding matters was the fact Kecoughtan
dressed only nine players with three members out, including a key starter in
6-foot-6 forward Kaelin
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> Poe.
115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Kecoughtan
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>
shot only 8-of-22 from three-point range, and while they stayed close down only
16-10 with a minute to go in the first quarter, it quickly got out of hand when
Oak Hill went on a 12-0 surge, keyed by suffocating defense that forced 11
first half turnovers.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"Early on, we tried to do way too much.
style=> I kind of thought we got a game-plan because
the game-plan was not to shoot that quick," Thomas
added. "I told them to run the offense
two, three times in a row, but this is not a traditional we face and you've got
to be patient to have success against them.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>While one of Hampton Roads' better teams struggled, a
757 native shined as Troy Williams,
former Phoebus star who's committed to Indiana, led Oak Hill in his own backyard
with 24 points, 15 rebounds and four assists.
Playing aggressive yet under control, Williams showed a more polished
game than fans became accustomed to seeing during the previous three years.
style=>
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Williams shot an efficient 11-of-17 from the field and
threw down four powerful jams. Being
back home was a memorable experience and one he won't forget.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"Hearing my mom in the crowd and all that again, my
cousin screaming and following up with her, it was a lot of fun seeing some old
friends and stuff," Williams said. "At
half-time, Coach wanted us to win by 40, but it was still a good win, more than
30."
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Troy, rated among the nation's Top 50 prospects from
the Class of 2013 according to Rivals.com, said one of the biggest adjustments
for him now playing at Oak Hill is getting used to playing a Championship-level
game every time. There are no pushovers
on the schedule.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"You've got to bring you A-game every day," he noted.
style=> "There are no days off, and at Oak Hill any
game is a big game. On Tuesday, we had a
game against Flora McDonald. We were expected
to win by more than 20, ended up winning by seven, shooting 32% from the
field. We had a big transition from last
game to this game."
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Playing the role of star was Williams and his
supporting cast consisted of
normal'>Sindarius
class=SpellE>Thornwell and Nate
Britt, a duo that provided 23 points, 10 assists and seven steals.
style=> Committed to South Carolina,
class=SpellE>Thornwell scored 16 points with 12 coming on three-point
bombs. Britt, who's headed to North
Carolina, mainly served as a distributor in this contest, being one of five
different Oak Hill players with multiple assists.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Oak Hill went to the free-throw line only eight times
on the evening. The charity stripe wasn't
needed because their firepower allowed them to get out in transition and strike
in the blink of an eye, drilling eight three-pointers to go with eight dunks.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Meanwhile, Kecoughtan had
only three offensive rebounds the entire night.
In addition, 39 of their 45 points came from the starting unit, lacking
the depth necessary to compete with a loaded bunch like Oak Hill for 32
minutes. Despite the lopsided loss,
Thomas feels they will benefit from the matchup and soaked up a lot.
"Verdana","sans-serif"'>"They learned that size matters and we had guys that
couldn't get their shot off, and we couldn't get the rebound," Thomas
stated. "It's a great learning
experience. I didn't think we quit, and
we'll get better."
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>
href="http://www.facebook.com/mobileprotection#!/media/set/?set=a.470680139634886.91989.100000787114156&type=3">See
Rod Johnson's Photo Galley from Oak Hill/Kecoughtan
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>
style='mso-special-character:line-break'>

style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Stats:
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Oak
Hill 82:
normal'>
Troy Williams - - 24Pts. 11-17FG, 15Reb. 4Ast.
Sindarius Thornwell - - 16Pts.
6-11FG, 4-6 3's, 4Ast. 5Stl.
Lennard Freeman - - 10Pts. 5-7FG, 4Reb. 2Blk
class=GramE>.
Ikenna Irogbu - - 9Pts.
4-7FG, 3Reb. 5Ast. 3Stl.
Nate Britt - - 7Pts. 3-5FG, 2Reb. 5Ast. 2Stl.
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Kecoughtan
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>
line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'> 45:
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>
115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>
Greg Alexander - - 14Pts. 6-16FG, 2-9 3's, 5Reb.
Rajay
Bullock - - 11Pts. 2-11FG, 7-10FT, 5Reb.
William Askew - - 6Pts. 2-3FG
Marcell Haskett - - 5Pts.
1-6FG, 3-4FT, 2Reb. 4Ast. 3Stl.
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'> 
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>
115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";text-decoration:none;text-underline:
none'>Matthew Hatfield
style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>
serves as State Basketball Analyst for
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style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>
115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>, part of the Rivals.com
Network. Check out
href="http://www.twitter.com/hatfieldsports">
normal'>
text-decoration:none;text-underline:none'>Hatfield's Twitter page
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>
115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> for more sports related updates,
and you can also read his work in the
href="http://www.suffolknewsherald.com">
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