By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

It was the start of the 2018 basketball season for the Oak Mountain boys basketball team on Tuesday, Nov. 13, and a good one at that with a dominant 63-29 win against the Leeds Greenwave, while the Oak Mountain girls continued an impressive start to the season with a 60-51 road victory against Homewood.

For the girls (2-1) it was a strong comeback effort after falling behind 17-9 early, but a 20-2 second quarter seemed to spur the win.

The boys on the other hand made easy work of Leeds thanks to 12 different scorers in the game. A recap from each game can be found below.

Oak Mountain 63, Leeds 29 

Eagles’ head coach Chris Love feels like his 2018-19 team full of a ton of young talent has a bright future, but in their opener, they were out to prove the future is now.

With a dominant lead throughout, Love took advantage of getting every guy on the team some playing time, in which they capitalized with all 12 players recording at least two points in the win.

The 15 first-quarter points may have been important to the win, but it was the aggressiveness from the defense in the first quarter that seemed key.

Oak Mountain was able to hold the Greenwave to just five opening-quarter points to take an early 10-point advantage at the end of one.

Six different players scored in the quarter, including five points from Trey Sullivan, but that was just the start for the Eagles.

In the second quarter, Oak Mountain held Leeds to five points for the second consecutive quarter, but this time the offense made a statement to seemingly end the game by halftime.

The Eagles scored 26 points in the quarter thanks to eight different scorers, three 3-pointers and a 3-3 mark at the free throw line, all of which led to a halftime lead of 41-10.

With the 31-point lead, Leeds was able to be freed up in the second half, which led to their best quarter of the game in the third period, while Oak Mountain was able to play deeper into the bench to gain valuable experience for each player.

The Greenwave went on to score 16 points and play to a 16-16 tie in the quarter thanks in large part to eight points from Chris Kemp in the period.

By the end of the third period, every player on Oak Mountain’s team had scored at least two points.

Leading 57-26 at the end of the third quarter, the Eagles’ defense came back to life in the final period and limited Leeds to just three points, while Oak Mountain closed the game out with six more points with a hot clock to pull off the 63-29 victory.

Drew Dunn led the team with 11 points, while Will Shaver, Anthony Carey, Noah Young and Sullivan all had between seven and nine points in the win.

Oak Mountain 60, Homewood 51

What was a 1-1 start for Oak Mountain’s girls through two games became a lot more positive on Tuesday, Nov. 13, with a comeback win against the Homewood Patriots on the road thanks to some familiar faces.

Trailing 17-9 at the end of the first quarter, it looked as if the Eagles were going to have an uphill battle in order to move above .500 through three games, but a drastic change ensued after that as Kailey Rory, Hannah Edwards and Emily Cruce continued successful season, while the entire defense made plays.

The change in attitude and effort led to a 20-0 run to start the second quarter before Homewood made a shot in the final seconds to nix the shutout in the quarter.

With the stellar second period, Oak Mountain jumped in front by 10 points at 29-19 and used that to fuel the rest of the night.

In the third quarter, the Eagles were able to put 16 more points to bring their total over the last two periods to 36, while they limited the Patriots to 12 points to outscore them for the second consecutive period, which extended Oak Mountain’s lead to 45-33.

Homewood battled back within 10 points in the final quarter, but Oak Mountain was able to stave off the comeback effort to pick up a 60-51 victory and improve to 2-1 on the season.

It was a big win for the Eagles for the simple face of momentum early in the season, showing what the team is capable of if they come together and play their best.

Rory ended up leading the team for the third consecutive game with 26 points, while Edwards and Cruce added 14 points apiece. Rory and Edwards have now posted double digits in all three games this season, while Cruce has finished in double digits in two of the three games.