By Ben Spector
COLUMBIA — When the Mt. Hebron Vikings took on the No. 3 Oakland Mills Scorpions on Thursday night, both teams were playing in real life. There was a game that actually happened in the real world. This would seem obvious, except for the fact that if you didn’t go to the game, and were handed a box score of it, the stats on the page could have easily come from a game played on NBA 2K16 as the Scorpions took a methodical approach to thumping the Vikings, 89-49.
For the Scorpions it was simply a matter of business as from the opening tip the Scorpions used their fast pace and athletic play all around to dictate the tempo and cause tons of headaches for the Vikings. Oakland Mills would take the lead early in the 1st quarter and would never look back the 1st quarter became an offensive show for the Scorpions.
The Scorpions went on a 16-5 run to start the game and used a tough inside game to power their way there. The Scorpions picked up the first 5 rebounds of the game and scored 14 of their 20 1st quarter points from inside the paint. And, it wasn’t just the 1st quarter, the Scorpions would continue to use the paint and their physicality inside to pay massive dividends.
“We wanted to come out aggressively and that’s kind of our thing,” Oakland Mills head coach Jon Browne said. “To dictate the pace of the game is exactly what we wanted to do tonight.”
Oakland Mills did just that forcing Mt. Hebron to try and run the court with them adding in a size advantage to help give them a 13 point lead with a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Scorpions guard Naquan Williams-Day giving Oakland Mills a 23-8 lead.
That 13 point lead wasn’t going to be enough to last the whole game for the Scorpions so Oakland Mills came back and continued the pace right from where they left off in the 1st quarter going on a 16-2 run to start the 2nd quarter and stretch their lead to 29 midway through the 2nd quarter.
For the Scorpions, the leader on the court for them was senior guard Daniel Kiely who finished the game with 19 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals as he found most of his success on the glass and inside for the Scorpions.
“He’s a heady player. He knows when he can get to the rim and he’s pretty much got carte blanche there,” said Browne. “Tonight he was at the top of his game in terms of penetration and attacking the rim.”
The Scorpions led at the half by 26 points but even then the show wasn’t over as the Scorpions continued to show their offensive prowess by having even their bench players dictate the pace of the game and lead the Scorpions to 89 points which for Oakland Mills has become a common thing this season.
And, in a way it just seemed that it was Oakland Mills’ night and even when Mt. Hebron played well the Scorpions found ways to luck out. Some moments it seemed that on this night when the Scorpions were putting up video game numbers from all facets of the game that they also had all the right glitches to help take advantage of moments where they made mistakes.
Once the Scorpions went for a dunk, slammed it off the backboard, and that scooped up the rebound for an easy lay-up. Multiple times went the ball went on the floor it found its way into the hands of Scorpions’ players.
It just seemed to be the Scorpions night.
Late, in the game the Scorpions would close things out but not after letting their bench get in on adding to the video game stats with 15 players seeing action and multiple players off the bench scoring for Oakland Mills.
Once, the game was over, though, Oakland Mills was on to recharging for Monday and finishing out the rest of their season and clinching the #1 seed in their region.
“We’re in a fight right now for the #1 seed,” said Browne, who’s Scorpions bumped their record up to 13-1 before a contest with Howard on Monday. “Coming into tonight we were the #2 seed, now we’re tied with Middletown. Playoffs is something we have certainly spent a lot of time speaking about.”
If the video game numbers continue for Oakland Mills they might get to spend a lot of time experiencing the playoffs too.
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