Oakville Girls Break Four Game Losing Streak

Oakville basketball player Jackie McCutcheon was not able to celebrate her team's 49-42 victory Wednesday night at Notre Dame High School.

The junior, who was having her best game of the season, took a nasty fall in the final minute of the game as she dislocated her elbow.

Freshman Sidney Thompson and the rest of the Tigers were not about to lose with their fallen teammate headed to the hospital.

"We really wanted to win for Jackie," said Thompson, who led all scorers with 16 points.

Thompson had 10 points in the first 4:15 of the fourth quarter but McCutcheon, who came off the bench, was also a big contributor with a pair of fourth quarter field goals.

"It was Jackie's best game," Oakville coach Aaron Bosch said. "She did so many good things for us and was one of the main reasons we won the game."

Both teams entered the game trying to break losing streaks. Oakville had lost four in a row, including a frustrating loss to Clayton in the MICDS Tournament. Notre Dame had lost eight of nine, including three in the Visitation Tournament.

The first half was tight with five lead changes; four ties and no team had a lead of more than three points. It was appropriate that the score was 16-16 at halftime.

Oakville started strong in the second half, scoring the first eight points on a pair of field goals by Alyssa Norberg, a 3-pointer by Lauren Fussell and a free throw by McCutcheon.

Notre Dame came right back and would cut the deficit to a point when Emily Nickels hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

The momentum was short-lived though as the Rebel bench was assessed with a technical foul before the fourth quarter began. Alex Perry hit the two free throws and the Tigers would never give up the lead.

Thompson had the hot streak to help Oakville to a 42-34 lead midway through the quarter.

"We worked better as a team tonight," Thompson said. "My teammates worked the ball around well and were able to find me when I was open."

Notre Dame stayed in the game as it converted 11 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter. But Fussell made all four of her free throws in the final minute to ice the game for the Tigers.

"We had a clunker against Clayton when we had a chance to win the final minute," Bosch said. "We had some good practices and got back to basics. We had been in some tight games and made a lot of mistakes down the stretch. I think we learned from our mistakes and played well tonight."

Fussell had 10 points to go along with Thompson's 16 for the Tigers, who improved to 3-5.

Freshman Kristina Eason had 12 and Nickels added 10 for the Rebels, who fell to 3-9.