By Teddy Rydquist

Review Sports Writer

Rounding out a quick two-game homestand, the Lake Orion Dragons girls basketball team hosted their crosstown rival, the Oxford Wildcats, on Jan. 23.

Taking control of the game nearly from the beginning, the Lady Dragons rolled to a convincing 42-30 victory, their first Oakland Activities Association (OAA) White triumph of the season.

Holding the Wildcats scoreless for almost six minutes to begin the contest, Lake Orion held a slight 7-3 margin after the opening eight minutes. The second quarter, however, was were the Dragons distanced themselves from the Wildcats.

Riding the three-point shooting of junior Meghan Marshall, Lake Orion took a 15-8 lead halfway through the second quarter, forcing Oxford head coach Rachel Bryer to burn a timeout to try to stop the run.

The Dragons entered the halftime break leading 22-15 and never looked back. Marshall led the charge with 12 points, including a trio of three-pointers. Freshman Kylie Heck chipped in 11 points, and senior Grace Vukelich added four.

Oxford senior Gabby Dinges, one of only three Wildcats to score in the game, tallied a game-high 18 points. Teammates senior Aleah Dymond and junior Emma Morris also appeared on the scoresheet for Oxford, with five and seven points, respectively.

“We went with a smaller lineup to start and it paid dividends for us having the extra ball-handlers and defenders on the floor,” Dragons head coach Bob Brydges said. “I was proud of our effort, especially on the defensive end. Held them to 15 points in each half and in the first half, eight of their 15 came from the free throw line.”

Lake Orion has identified a few specific goals within each game that correlate best with winning. For the second consecutive contest, the Dragons met all their goals.

“For us, the biggest things are to reach 40 points on the offensive end, hold our opponents under 35 on the defensive end, and keep our turnovers under 20,” Brydges said.

“When we can do these things, we can be a good team. They are especially important when you’re as young as this team is; we started a freshman, two sophomores and two juniors tonight.”

Improving to 4-6 overall (1-5 OAA White), Lake Orion has now won back-to-back games after dropping five straight from Dec. 17-Jan. 17. The girls are tied with Oxford (5-6, 1-5) for a share of sixth-place in the division, two games back of the North Farmington Raiders, Rochester Adams Highlanders and Troy Colts for a slice of third-place.

As part of “Rivalry Night,” the Dragons will next hit the floor at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 29 against the Clarkston Wolves (8-3, 4-2 OAA Red) at the Oakland University O’Rena in Rochester

“Everybody is looking forward to that game, it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Brydges said of the opportunity to play at a National College Athletic Association Division I facility. “A lot of the girls on their team know a lot of the girls on our team.

“We played against them a couple of times over the summer, gave them pretty good games. I think this will be another great game, we have to make sure we come ready to play.”