Olymbia rebuffs Oak Ridge in 7A-District 5 title game

WINDERMERE, FLORIDA – Olympia boys basketball coach Rob Gordon said his Titans are better, because the team is more than just E.J. “Jizzle” James. The Cincinnati signee, however, proved Friday he can assert himself when it matters.

James scored 10 of his game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter, and the Titans outlasted Oak Ridge 71-66 to win the Class 7A, District 5 title.

Olympia (25-2, No. 5 in the SBLive Florida Power 25) will host a region quarterfinal at 7 p.m. Thursday and will likely be the region’s top seed when the playoff brackets are announced Sunday. Oak Ridge (16-9, No. 11) entered Friday as the third seed and has an outside shot of hosting Thursday.

James burned Oak Ridge for 45 points in a 92-84 road victory on Jan. 16. But the Pioneers made sure he wouldn’t burn them again.

James went 6 of 8 from the free-throw line, including 4 of 4 in the final 31 seconds to help the Titans hold off Oak Ridge.

James also grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out five assists.

“We just had to handle their pressure, be smart, lessen our mistakes and turnovers,” James said. “That’s what we learned. That’s how we won.”

Gordon said that he switched James into the point-guard role for the first time this year. Several times he drove to the free-throw line and would draw two, three or four defenders. He would then either feed Sean Owens or Kaiden White for an open 3-pointer or set up Outlaw for an alley-oop dunk.

“It was a learning curve even for E.J.,” Gordon said. “We’ve made the decision to move him back to the point to free up some other guys and trusted him to bring us home. He reverted back to a little bit of what he had to do last year versus trusting that the better players, the more talent this year, can make the plays that needed to be made.

James was one of four Olympia players with double-figure scoring. Cam Miles added 14 points and three steals for Olympia. Teammate Kevins Charles scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half. Jackson Outlaw added 10 points and eight rebounds.

“They tried to game-plan to stop E.J.,” Gordon said. “This year, the other guys are good enough to make the plays that are necessary.”

James scored five points during a 14-3 first-quarter run, closing the quarter with the Titans leading 23-15.

Olympia then held Oak Ridge to 3 of 11 from the field in the second quarter to lead by 35-24 at the half.

“We were playing from behind the second half,” Oak Ridge coach Steve Reece said. “We sucked in the first half. There’s no other way around it. We didn’t do what we were supposed to do. Hat's off to them. Hopefully we handle business on the road and get back.”

Oak Ridge, which dominated Olympia on the boards 40-28, started to claw back into the game. Tyler Johnson scored six of his game-high 19 points in the third quarter, and Jalen Reece scored eight of his 11 points in the third to cut Olympia’s lead to 48-44. Johnson also grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds.

“Tyler was good,” Reece said. “I wish a couple of us would’ve matched his intensity.”

Outlaw scored eight of his 10 points in the third quarter, helping keep the Titans ahead entering the fourth.

“We had to play as hard as they were,” said Outlaw of battling Johnson and Tillery inside. “It’s not a clean game. It’s physical, you gotta love it.”

Twice Oak Ridge cut Olympia’s lead to 2 points in the fourth quarter, the last on a Johnson putback with 3:34 left that made the score 57-55.

James hit a layup with 3:00 left for a 59-55 Titans lead, then Olympia spread the ball to kill some time. Eventually, Oak Ridge had to foul, and the Titans went 12 of 14 from the free-throw line in the final 1:16 to clinc the victory. Jordan Tillery hit a 3-pointer with 41.2 left, and Johnson’s 3-pointer with 23 seconds left cut the Olympia lead to 67-64.

But James and Miles each hit two free throws to clinch the victory. Miles scored nine of his points in the fourth quarter.

“It was just defense,” Miles said. “We had to get the stop, play smart and stay poised.”

Tillery finished with 18 points and eight rebounds for the Pioneers, who also got 12 points from Elijah Elliott.

Gordon said if the Titans hadn’t struggled on the boards, they might have won easily. He said Olympia has struggled recently on the boards against opponents.

But he lauded his team’s ability to handle Oak Ridge.

“The poise of our kids all around, Jizzle included, got us the win,” Gordon said. “Hard fought. They threw the kitchen sink at us. We dodged it just enough times.”