Oak Ridge girls’ basketball team beats Whitney behind Teagan Brown’s 27 points
The Whitney High School gymnasium offered a COVID-19 reality check Tuesday night.
Chairs were socially distanced on the sideline. Coaches wore masks during the game and players did the same in warm-ups. Only one side of the bleachers were up and the fan attendance was limited.
On the court, the Oak Ridge girls’ basketball team flipped the script, too, taking a 51-35 win over Whitney. The rebound came after Whitney earned a 46-37 win last week in a topsy-turvy spring season.
Steve White is the tireless Oak Ridge athletic director who serves as the girls’ coach. He’s managed the chaos for all sports on the Oak Ridge campus.
“I’m glad that we’re getting the opportunity to play from a coaching standpoint,” he said. “From (an) athletic director (standpoint) like it’s been crazy busy. With 20 sports going on at once and having to deal with COVID testing and quarantines. ... The kids needed something to do, so I’m glad we were able to do that for them.”
Oak Ridge led 29-15 at the half and 40-20 at the end of the third. The Trojans’ largest lead of the game stretched to 22 points before Whitney cut it to 12 midway through the fourth quarter. Junior Teagan Brown had a game-high 27 points. Ella Ray, a transfer from Capital Christian, added 11.
Brown has been an impact player for Oak Ridge since she stepped onto campus as a freshman. She was a key part of the Trojans’ run to the Division l Sac-Joaquin Section championship game last season. Her coach called her, “the most talented player I’ve been able to coach.”
Whitney honored its four seniors Lauren Bernard, Emmy Fowler, Kiyo Nakano and Ashley Laguna-Gonzalez prior to the game for a senior night celebration. Whitney coach Sydney Gatson thought it was important to honor the seniors with the uncertainty of how the rest of the season will go.
“You never know when you’re going to get shut down for two weeks,” Gatson said. “We wanted to make sure we honored our seniors while we could so we didn’t miss out on the opportunity.”
With no playoffs this basketball season, the Sierra Foothill League plans to play a three-day tournament at the end of the season to crown a league champion. The top two teams will receive byes and the other four teams will play each other in the early games.
After going 6-22 last season, the current and future is bright for Whitney. That includes 6-foot-3 freshman sensation Harper Peterson, who received a verbal scholarship offer from the University of Arizona last week. She scored in all different ways and had a team-high 10 points against Oak Ridge.
“It’s special,” Gatson said on having a player like Peterson. “It’s like a once-in-a-possible-generation player. What’s so cool about her is she is the most humble kid. She’s so coachable and is such an amazing teammate. Having her presence on the court is really important for our confidence. It says a lot about where this program is going.”