Cor Jesu Ends Oakville Girls Basketball Season

As strong as Oakville came out in their first district game, that’s how strong their second opponent, Cor Jesu, came out Tuesday night.

The Tigers led 22-4 at the end of the first quarter Monday night against Lindbergh, and Cor Jesu led 19-6 at the same time Tuesday.

The Chargers ended Oakville’s season, winning 54-27 at Fox High School in the second round of district play.

“We knew that Cor Jesu was going to press and they play that real tight, in-your-face defense. Without having a day to prepare for it, we knew we were going to be in trouble,” said Oakville coach Aaron Bosch.

The Tigers came within eight in the second quarter after forcing two Charger turnovers. But Cor Jesu went on a 9-0 run right before halftime, ending with a 3-pointer by Monica Simon for a 34-17 score.

Simon had 14 points for the Chargers, who started the third quarter in a full court press.

“Our press, we work pretty hard on our man-to-man full court pressure, and if we can get a team to speed up that’s not used to playing fast, that helps us,” said Cor Jesu coach John Neff.

The second half didn’t improve for the Tigers, who missed their first nine shots. They scored four points in the third quarter and six in the fourth.

Freshman Alyssa Norberg was the high scorer for the Oakville with 11 points. Senior Lauren Fussell added six.

The Tigers will lose two seniors to graduation, Lauren Fussell and Erin Allen. The team will need to look for a point guard, but will return its two leading scorers, both freshmen.

Bosch said he couldn’t be prouder of his two seniors this season.

“Lauren’s a great kid and she really got to step into the leadership role this year. She’s really helped with the young girls. She gets on their butt in practice if things get lackadaisical,” he said.

“Erin—she’s a coach’s dream because she does everything you tell her to do. She goes in and gets offensive rebounds, all 5-foot-4 of her. Losing her with the concussion really hurt down the stretch because she started playing really well for us toward the end.”

Cor Jesu moves on to play Kirkwood in the district finals Friday at 5 p.m. at Fox High School.

“They play a lot of man-to-man defense so we’ll be looking to get a little better and sharper at that,” Neff said. “Kirkwood has a lot of weapons, they have a lot of solid kids.”

Check out more photos from the game on our Facebook page.