By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
BUENA — To say the first couple weeks of the season have been a struggle for the Oakcrest High girls basketball team might be an understatement. Under new coach Brittney Carney, an assistant under Scott Meile (now at Holy Spirit) last year, the Falcons got off to an 0-4 start and their closest loss was by 26 points to Winslow.
But on Tuesday afternoon Oakcrest started to see some signs of turning things around and being more competitive, as the Falcons built a 10-point second-half lead against host Buena before hanging on through a tense final minute to win, 30-26. It was not only the first win of the season for the Falcons, but also the first varsity basketball victory for coach Carney, the daughter of highly successful Buena Regional High baseball coach Tom Carney.
“The big turning point was when we went into the locker room (at halftime). Coach Carney said we had to start playing as a team,” said sophomore guard A’Tirah Mitchell, who finished with nine points, including seven in the second half. “That’s really what got us the win. We wanted to move the ball and play as a team — move the ball, get open, get good looks, that’s all it was.”
“It feels great. I feel like it was well deserved. We put out the amount of effort we needed to, and came out with the win,” said senior Zeriena Buckle. “It’s all coach, that’s all I can say. She talked to us, got us back in check and we came out (in the third quarter) and got on the right momentum. We had better energy and better performance (in the second half).”
Oakcrest (1-4, 1-2 Cape-Atlantic League United) outscored Buena 12-4 in the third quarter, turning a 14-9 deficit into a 21-18 lead. Mitchell capped off a 6-0 run by putting back her own miss, giving Oakcrest a 15-14 lead. Buena responded when Isabella Atkins stole the ball at midcourt and converted on the layup, putting the Chiefs back in front, 16-15. But Mitchell hit a jumper to put the Falcons back in front, 17-16, and they never trailed again.
A big key to the second-half success was Aliyah Gause, who scored eight of her team-high 13 points in the final 16 minutes.
“She’s a great scorer and we look to her, and (when she started scoring) that’s when we started to pull away a little bit,” Mitchell said.
“My teammates were finding me open and we finally started working as a team, moving the ball around,” Gause said. “I wasn’t worried (at the end), I was just trying to keep my composure as a team. This win is building our confidence up to play more as a team.”
“The first win is definitely nice and hopefully it will inspire them to trust me a little bit more,” coach Carney said. “I just keep preaching to them that we’re doing this together and if we stay together as a team, wins like this will come.”
Buena (0-5, 0-3 CAL United) trailed by as much as 30-19, but never gave up, scoring five points from the free-throw line in the final three minutes to close the gap to 30-26, but the shots wouldn’t fall in the final 30 seconds as Oakcrest hung on.
Carney said it came down to resetting her team during the halftime break.
“I told them (Buena) was giving more effort. We know the situation we’re in, being a young, developing team, that wins are going to be hard to come by. But it’s never acceptable for a team to beat us on shear effort. All I did was point out that we were being beaten on effort, it wasn’t necessarily skill vs. skill. They were outrebounding us and they were fighting harder,” she said. “I’m happy for them. This has been an amazing ride so far, to see these girls come together, to have a JV team for the first time in about seven years. It’s pretty cool and it’s great the way they show up every day. I was Meile’s assistant last year so I had some familiarity with the girls. This win is everything for them. It shows them that their hard work is paying off and there’s a reason for showing up every day. Coach Carney may be a psycho about the details, but it’s for a purpose. It’s in their best interest and wanting them to be their very best. I feel like I’m their biggest cheerleader. I want them to realize how good they can be.”
Mitchell said the players are now hungry for win No. 2. Their next chance comes on Thursday when they host Cape May Tech.
“With those losses to start the season, we were hungry to win, and now we’re going to keep going and try to get more wins because it feels good,” she said.
WHAT’S NEXT: Oakcrest hosts Cape May Tech on Thursday at 4 p.m. Buena hosts Bridgeton on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com
