Oak Hill Plays Like Nation's No.2 Team In Beating Heights, 64-47

Warriors' Wigginton Takes Chattanooga By Storm

  • Saturday, February 6, 2016
  • Larry Fleming
Hamilton Heights' Abdulhakim Ado tries to find room for a shot against Oak Hill's Khadim Sy -- they're both 6-foot-10-inch stars -- Saturday night in the McCallie Classic. Sy scored 21 points and made life miserable for Hawks inside players. Oak Hill's Lindell Wigginton, background, watches the action.
Hamilton Heights' Abdulhakim Ado tries to find room for a shot against Oak Hill's Khadim Sy -- they're both 6-foot-10-inch stars -- Saturday night in the McCallie Classic. Sy scored 21 points and made life miserable for Hawks inside players. Oak Hill's Lindell Wigginton, background, watches the action.
photo by M.A. Locke

Lindell Wigginton would probably like to come back to Chattanooga.

Like soon, dude.

Wigginton closed a brilliant weekend of basketball Saturday night, leading second-ranked Oak Hill to an impressive 64-47 rout of 25th-ranked Hamilton Heights in the final game of the first McCallie Classic.

The showdown in front of a sellout crowd of about 1,400 pitted nationally ranked teams and Oak Hill clearly was the superior team on this night. The Warriors improved to 33-1 and left town with a 30-game winning streak.

Their only loss was a 70-67 decision to 22 Feet Academy out of Greenville, S.C., on Nov. 14.

“We felt good coming into Chattanooga,” said Wigginton, who won the dunk and 3-point shooting contests on top of scoring 46 points in the two games. “We had a little chip on our shoulders tonight. We wanted a good win tonight against a team we only beat by single digits earlier in the year.”

Wigginton pumped in a game-high 24 points and had 10 after one quarter of play. Hamilton Heights had 10. The flashy guard added eight second-half points and had four 3s. The team ended with five.

“Lindell had a great weekend,” Oak Hill coach Steve Smith said. “He led us in scoring both games.”

Big man Khadim Sy gave Wigginton plenty of offensive help with 21 points. The 6-foot-10-inch, 240-pound Sy, who will play collegiately at Virginia Tech, scored five straight points to close the third quarter and pushed a shaky 47-41 lead into a 52-41 cushion.

“We were really trying to get the ball inside,” Sy said. “When I got the ball I used my body to score some points.”

Sy’s one-man streak stymied Hamilton Heights’ comeback from 13-point halftime deficit and put the Hawks back into a double-digit hole from which they never escaped.

“That was a defining stretch in the game,” said Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who led the Hawks (22-3) with 15 points and then spent several minutes talking to Southern Cal head coach Andy Enfield outside the team’s locker room at McCallie’s Sports and Activities Center.

“We came within six points and had some momentum and I felt like we were rolling,” Walker added. “Their guy took the momentum from us and we couldn’t catch back up after that.”

Early on, the Warriors, whose only loss in 2014-15 came in the season finale in the national championship game at Madison Square Garden in New York City, trailed 11-9. They went on a 16-2 run – Wigginton and Devontae Shuler each had five points – and blew into a 12-point advantage.

Hamilton Heights cut the deficit to 33-28, but Sy made a free throw and Wigginton, who was shooting like the hoop was 3-feet wide, sandwiched a pair of 3s around a put-back by The Heights’ Silas Adheke and Oak Hill was up 43-40 at the break.

With Abdulhakim Ado putting down a dunk, Therren Shelton-Alexander hitting a bucket and 3 from the wing – he finished with 13 points – and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander driving the lane for a layup and his only points of the game, suddenly the Hawks were a threat at 47-41.

That’s when Sy stole their hearts.

“That was incredibly disappointing,” Hawks coach Zach Ferrell said. “Our guys fought hard and prepared to win this game. They put their hearts on the line and losing really hurts.

“But Oak Hill is probably the best team in the country and they’ve have all high-major kids. They’re as good as it gets in high school basketball.”

The fourth quarter was basically a formality, but Oak Hill got a real scare when forward Braxton Key drove the lane and went up for a shot, but was called for a charging foul. He hit the floor hard and remained down for several minutes while having his right ankle examined.

Key was helped off the court by two people and taken straight to the locker room.

Afterward, an Oak Hill assistant coach said Key likely suffered a sprain and should be all right.

Key only scored six points, all in the first half, but he was brilliant with passes that led directly to buckets by teammates. All the Oak Hill players exhibited great passing skills throughout the game. More often than not those passes led to assists and points.

“This was a big week for us, probably the toughest we’ll have the rest of the regular season,” Smith said. “We had a tough game Wednesday in Jonesboro, Ga., (a 74-50 win) and felt like this was going to be a challenging game too.

“But if we get a lead we usually keep it because of our great guard play. We’ve got four guys, all juniors, that make great decisions and I feel confident with their offense and they’re good defenders too.”

In the night’s opener, McCallie bounced back from a loss to Oak Hill on Friday by using a strong second quarter as a springboard to a 74-62 win over Central’s Purple Pounders.

“We played pretty well against Oak Hill (Friday night) and we tried to take that same intensity into tonight,” said Henley Edge, who led the Blue Tornado (22-6) with 14 points.

Edge scored nine points in the second period when the Blue Tornado outscored Central, 24-8, and grabbed a 42-29 halftime advantage.

“We won two quarters and stayed with them in the fourth, but that second quarter beat us,” Central coach Rick Rogers said. “We played exactly how we wanted to play in the first and had a 21-18 lead. In the second, we didn’t defend the 3, we were standing behind the (McCallie) post player and it didn’t work.

“We learned two things from this. One, we have to play the whole game against good competition. Second, we have to keep number 32 (McClendon Curtis) on the floor.”

Curtis fouled out with 5:01 left in the fourth quarter and took a double-double – 13 points and 14 rebounds – to the bench with him.

Junior Clay scored 13 points and Adrian Thomas had 11 for McCallie.

“You always look for a two- or three-minute spurt in games where you can go 10-0 or 11-0 and make a difference in the game,” McCallie coach John Shulman said. “We did that in the second quarter and went up eight or nine points. Being up 13 at the half was a big deal for us. Then we finished out the second half in a big-time way.”

Central (16-3) was led by Terron Hayes with 18 points, all coming on 3-point shots. He was 6-for-11 behind the arc.

Ryan Montgomery scored 12 points and blocked six shots. Emmanuel Lane was credited with five assists.

“We know we’re playing out of our league,” Rogers said, “but we were honored to be selected as the only public school in Chattanooga to play in the McCallie Classic. Their hospitality toward us was top-notch.”

Boxscores

Central                                                 21 8 19 14 – 62

McCallie                                              18 24 13 19 – 74

Central (62) – Lane 3, Poole 5, Ryan Montgomery 12, Swafford, Terron Hayes 18, Benford 8, McClendon Curtis 13.

McCallie (74) – Craig 4, Watson 4, Junior Clay 13, Adrian Thomas 11, Henley Edge 14, Clark 5, Hunt 3, McCalley 3, Shulman 9, Starling 8, Hightower.

3-Point Goals – Central 8 (Hayes 6, Lane 1, Poole 1), McCallie 10 (Shulman 3, Clay 2, Edge 2, Watson, Hunt 1, McColley 1).

Hamilton Heights                            11 19 11 6 – 47

Oak Hill                                             18 25 9 12 – 64

Hamilton Heights (47) – Abubakar, Abdulhakim Ado 10, Therren Shelton-Szmidt 13, Nickeil Alexander-Walker 15, Massengill, Gilgeous-Alexander 2, Silas Adheke 7.

Oak Hill (64) – Coleman 4, Key 6, Lindell Wigginton 24, Shuler 9, Alexander, Khadim Sy 21.

3-Point Goals – Hamilton Heights 5 (Alexander-Walker 3, Shelton-Szmidt 2), Hill 5 (Wigginton 4, 

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)

Oak Hill defenders never make it easy for opposing players to score. Hamilton Heights' Therren Shelton-Szmidt finds his path to the hoop guarded by the Warriors' Matt Coleman, center, and Ty-Shon Alexander (21) Saturday night in the McCallie Classic. Oak Hill won 64-47
Oak Hill defenders never make it easy for opposing players to score. Hamilton Heights' Therren Shelton-Szmidt finds his path to the hoop guarded by the Warriors' Matt Coleman, center, and Ty-Shon Alexander (21) Saturday night in the McCallie Classic. Oak Hill won 64-47
photo by M.A. Locke
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