By LARRY HYPES
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

TAZEWELL, Va. — In the end, Scott was king.
King Scott scored the opening basket and nailed a three in overtime to rally Oak Hill Academy to an 86-85 win over Tazewell Saturday. Jeff Ugu poured in 30 points to support the Warrior (5-1) win, but the Bulldogs (2-3) came within a shot of the upset victory in their best effort of the season.
A talented THS trio of Colin Hancock (27), Jalen Jordan (22), and Noah Walker (20) was able to go toe-to-toe, if not eye level, with the lofty Oak Hill lineup. Hancock fired in a dazzling 8 three point shots while Walker was outstanding again as he hauled down 14 rebounds and blocked seven shots.
Oak Hill hit nine three points but the red-hot Bulldogs went downtown 11 times for treys.
Looking up at the Warriors at virtually every position, the Dogs battled gamely. Using a combination of Walker’s inside power and the downtown duo of Hancock and Catron – who drilled back-to-back treys at one point –Tazewell fashioned a 10-point advantage, 32-22, with 3:10 to go in the opening half.
“We played a good game today,” noted Walker, who again held the inside for Tazewell all day. “We all worked together – this was a team effort. I think we played up to our competition. Even though we did not win on the scoreboard, today was big for us as a basketball team with high expectations. We did a lot of good things.”
However, working against the massive Oak Hill lineup cost both Jesse Mountain and Jalen Jordan three fouls and they missed much of the second stanza.
Oak Hill jumped out a 5-0 lead and Tazewell began to come back late in the first quarter and then finally tied the score at 17-all on a Hancock trey. Overall, the Dogs outscored Oak Hill 24-16 in the second quarter.
The Warriors rallied behind Scott and Uju but a put back bucket from Cody McCann sent Tazewell into the locker room ahead 36-33.
The second half was virtually a see-saw battle with neither team able to get more than a five point lead before being challenged again. Both teams were capable inside and outside, with only a cool performance from the line slowing progress.
Uju and Hancock traded threes in the final two minutes, and the Warriors lost Kim Ubaru to fouls with 1:59 left in the fourth quarter.
Jalen Jordan made an amazing layup in the paint to push Tazewell ahead 74-71 but Uju scored on the next series for Oak Hill, which outgunned THS by 7 point in the final period. Both teams missed free throws in the last :12 to force the overtime.
Jordan led Tazewell with five points in the extra period and his final free throw gave THS an 85-83 lead with :10 seconds to play. King got the ball, however and it was game, set, match in a classic outing.
“I was just thinking ‘Thank you, Lord’ when the ball went in,” grinned Scott about his only trey of the game. “We started out well, and just had to keep hustling. We believe in ourselves. Jeff (Uju) really shot well all game and we finally got hot enough to put ourselves in position to win.”
Ubaru added 19 points and Edagh Fawkes got 15 as only five players scored for Oak Hill.
Hancock put on a display with his hot hand, and backed that up with 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
“It felt good to see the ball well. I loved our defense today and we got some rebounds. I sure would like to see us get on a roll for the rest of the season. Oak Hill has a great team but we played right with them,” noted Hancock.
Jordan, too, who made some exceptional plays inside, said, “We finally played ball like we are capable of. The whole team played together. Now we know we can be a good team.”
Bulldog coach Lee Walker concluded, “It was fun to see us play better. I’m happy with that. Our outside shooting came around – Colin was really on fire. That helped the inside game. Noah was very consistent again and Jalen made some outstanding plays. Juwan (Jordan) helped a lot. We had a chance to win against an excellent team."
Hill finished 13-25 at the foul line while Tazewell was only 8-for-20 in one of the few “down” stats for either team.
The Oak Hill junior varsity won 73-43.
Tazewell hosts home games against Ft. Chiswell on Monday December 10 (boys only) and Grundy Tuesday (boys and girls).

At Tazewell Middle School
Oak Hill (86)
Jeff Uju 30, King Scott 19, Edajh Fawkes 15, Kim Ubaru 19, Ibrahim Ngom 3
Tazewell (85)
Colin Hancock 27, Jalen Jordan 22, Tanner Catron 6, Noah Walker 20, Juwan Jordan 8, Cody McCann 2
Oak Hill..........................17 16 20 22 11 — 86
Tazewell.........................12 24 24 14 11 — 85
Three point goals – O, 9 (Uju –5, Fawkes –2, Scott, Ngom). T, 11

(Hancock –8, Catron –2, Jalen Jordan –1).

Fouled out – Oak Hill (Ubaru).