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Oak Mountain was able to pull away for a strong 64-30 win against the Pelham Panthers thanks to double-digit scoring from Abi Brown, Hannah Edwards and Kailey Rory. (For the Reporter/Larry Dancy)

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor 

PELHAM – The Oak Mountain girls basketball team has looked like a playoff team at times early in the 2018-19 season and that continued on Tuesday, Dec. 11, with a county rivalry matchup on the road against the Pelham Panthers.

Coming into the matchup, the Eagles held the advantage with overall record at 7-5, but the Panthers were gaining momentum as winners of three of their last four games, including a recent win against the Homewood Patriots.

Oak Mountain, however, was able to take advantage of a fast start in the opening quarter doubling up Pelham, which led to the Eagles playing from in front the rest of the night and pulling off a 64-30 win.

The Eagles (8-5) fast start in the opening period was thanks to four different scores led by Hannah Edwards who came out on fire with six points in the post and two more at the free throw line for eight of the 19 points in the first quarter.

She was aided in scoring by Kailey Rory, who came out and knocked down two 3-pointers in the frame.

KK Tomlinson came out and had five opening-quarter points for the Panthers, but they were only able to total eight in the period, as Oak Mountain took a 19-8 lead into the second quarter.

Pelham (3-6) was able to get another five-point scorer in the second period by way of Laci Gogan, and the Panthers totaled 10 points in the frame, but Oak Mountain was again too much offensively.

The Eagles went on to have five players score in the quarter, including four with at least three points, which led to 15 total points in the period and a 34-18 lead at the half.

Coming out of the halftime break, the Panthers looked much more like the team that came into the matchup winning three of their last four games.

The Panthers started pushing the ball up the floor hard on every rebound and off of every forced turnover, which allowed them to start the third quarter on a run to cut the deficit down slightly.

However, Oak Mountain was able to get back-to-back offensive rebounds from Edwards, which quickly killed that momentum and gave the Eagles a 43-25 advantage heading to the final period.

Again, Pelham started the fourth quarter doing what it needed to do to climb back into the game with a 4-0 run, but then Abi Brown happened.

She answered the 4-0 run with a 3-pointer to kill the Panthers’ momentum and went on to hit two more in the final quarter to help the Eagles end the game on a 17-1 run for the 64-30 win.

Oak Mountain was led by Brown with 18 points thanks to four 3-pointers in the second half. Just behind her was Edwards with 15 points, while Rory added 11 points to give the Eagles three scorers in double digits.

Pelham was led by Emma McKenney with 10 points in the game.

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