BRANDON — They say all things must come to an end, and Oak Grove’s most successful season under coach LaRon Brumfield ended Tuesday night.
Behind the play of Willie Miller and Jaquevias Tarvin, Brandon was able to hold off Oak Grove 56-48 in the quarterfinal round of the MHSAA Boys Class 6A playoffs on Tuesday night.
The Bulldogs (27-5) will face the Starkville-Oxford winner in the Class 6A semifinals on Wednesday, March 6 at 8:30 p.m. at the Mississippi Coliseum. This is Brandon’s second trip to the State Basketball Tournament in the last three years.
“The game went like I thought it would go, but down the stretch they (Brandon) were tougher than we were,” Brumfield said. “We made stops when we needed to but they would get the offensive rebounds. We knew we would struggle with them on the boards coming in ,and they were longer than we were. We’ve played like that all season and it caught up with us tonight.”
Even though it was close, Brandon lead the entire first half going up 13-10 at the end of first quarter and held a slim 21-19 lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, Oak Grove took a 30-27 on a 3-pointer by Brandon Tilley with 4:11 left. With the game tied at 34 Tilley would hit another 3 with 14 seconds left in the third quarter to give the Warriors a 37-34 lead. Oak Grove ended up leading by one at 37-36 after Brandon’s Devontae Lyles hit a buzzer-beater jump shot.
In the fourth quarter, it was back and forth with five lead changes.
With Oak Grove up 45-44, Brandon’s Jacquez Jackson made a lay-up with just more than two minutes left to give the Bulldogs a 46-45 lead.
Brandon then closed out the game on a 12-3 run to pull away.
“It was a tough gritty matchup because both teams are so even,” Brandon coach Fred Barnes said. “We knew what each other was going to do, and down the stretch, we were able to establish what we like to do. Our guys stepped up at the end.”
Tarvin had a game-high 19 points to lead Brandon, while Miller added 13 points for the Bulldogs.
“We talked before the game. Our advantage was going to be on the rebounds,” Barnes said. “Because they put so many shooters on the floor, we couldn’t shoot with them. So, we had to live on offensive rebounds and put backs. In the second half we were able to get in gaps.”
Jay Barnes had 14 points to lead Oak Grove, while Blake Roberts added 12 points for the Warriors (25-6).
“It was a great season for us,” Brumfield said. We won the district for the first time since 1988 and got one game away from Jackson. I’ve got a special group of kids and they were fun to coach. This will be a season they will remember. We got a good group coming back and we are excited about next year.”
