Oak Forest bounces back, beats Stagg

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:54AM

When Oak Forest walked away from the Hillcrest Holiday Classic with an 0-3 record, the Bengals did so without any intention of looking back.

Forget the films. Forget the analysis.

"We really didn't want to look at films because, first of all, it brings us back to that," junior Katie Swanson said. "We wanted to move on and not go back."

They could truly forget after Tuesday's 51-41 victory over visiting Stagg.

Swanson led the way for Oak Forest (10-5) with 17 points. Colleen Emmett added 15 points and five rebounds, while Lynn Nagle had eight points and seven rebounds.

Bridget Adams had 19 points and six rebounds, Alexa Janus seven points and Andrea Beric six points and seven rebounds for Stagg (2-12).

The Bengals repeated one of the things that they did over Christmas - starting fast. They bolted to an early 13-0 lead after one quarter thanks to some three-point sharpshooting by Swanson and Emily Missaggia (six points) and led comfortably 27-10 at the half.

What they didn't repeat were any of the second-half collapses that cost them all three games at Hillcrest.

Stagg made two determined runs at Oak Forest.

The Chargers rallied from 19 points down to within 11 midway through the third period, but Emmett and Swanson were able to stabilize the situation for Oak Forest, Emmett scoring on two fastbreak layups and Swanson nailing a pair of free throws.

Adams and Revi McMahon were at the forefront of Stagg's next surge, hitting three-pointers during a 9-1 fourth-quarter run that turned a 17-point deficit into nine at 44-35 with 4:36 left in the game.

Swanson's answer was a 7-of-8 performance at the free-throw line.

"We work on free throws a lot," Swanson said. "Free throws are a big part of the game and (Tuesday) we had to hit them to keep our lead. And that's what we did."

Stagg, which lost its first 10 games of the season before winning two in a row at the Hillcrest tournament, did enough to convince coach Bill Turner that his Chargers still are on the right path.

"We saw a little bit of everything tonight," Turner said. "When I looked up at that scoreboard at the end of the first quarter and it was 13-0 I felt like, ‘What the heck happened here?' But the second half, obviously, was a much different story. That's the way we need to play the rest of the year."

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