Lake Orion High School’s varsity girls basketball team hosted rivals Oxford High School on Wednesday in a battle for the top of the OAA Blue.

The Dragons held their own throughout, playing a scrappy game against the Wildcats but fell behind quickly in the fourth quarter losing 51-39. A considerable contribution to the loss being the number of fouls called on Lake Orion. The Wildcats sunk 12 out of their 23 foul attempts, exactly the number of points the Dragons lost by.

“The same thing happened last time,” said Lake Orion’s Head Coach Bob Brydges. “They outshot us at the free-throw line.”

Orion had played Oxford in Feb., falling to the Wildcats to a score of 44-35. A hard-fought, come from behind victory for the Oxford ladies.

The Oxford ladies played a strong defensive game, playing a variation of zone defense as well as implementing a strong half-court press keeping the Dragons outside of the paint and forcing them to hit threes for a good portion of the first half.

By the half, the Lake Orion was down by just one point. Back and forth scoring by each team kept the score close with the Dragons still trailing by one heading into the fourth quarter.

Lake Orion did a good job keeping the Wildcats outside of the paint in the fourth quarter, but strong Oxford shooters continued to rake in the points, hitting a number of three-point shots and pulling the game further out of reach for the Dragons.

The game hit a full stop early in the fourth quarter with an arm injury to one of Oxford’s leading scorers, number 32 Emma Morris. the injury was later found to be a break that is expected to keep her out for the remainder of the season.

Dragons themselves sustained an injury with under 30 seconds to go after, Sydney Maddox, one of Lake Orion’s seniors and a captain, hit her head on the court and had to be taken out of the game and checked for a concussion.

Leading scorers for Lake Orion include sophomore Kylie Heck who contributed a whopping 20 points for the Dragons followed by senior captain Meghan Marshall and sophomore Maddie Ebbert each chipping in six points.

The loss tied the Dragons and the Wildcats at 5-2 at the top of the OAA Blue.

On Friday, the ladies headed to Midland High School in a non-league matchup falling to the Chemics 43-17.

The loss puts the Dragons at 6-6 overall.

The ladies host the Rochester High School Falcons for another division head-to-head on Tuesday after Review press time.

— Megan Kelley