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BAY MILLS - The Ojibwe Charter School Eagles basketball team lost a regular season game to the Maplewood Baptist Bears on Monday, Feb. 13, by a score of 65-30. With the loss, the Eagles fell to 3-8 in Northern Lights League play.
While merely glancing at the scoreboard would suggest the Eagles were on the losing end of a blowout, Eagles Head Coach John Paul Lufkins said he did not leave the gymnasium feeling disappointed. As a matter of fact, Lufkins said he was pleased, not only with the way his young team competed against the much older and much larger Bears team, but also with the way his team carried themselves in defeat.
"We're a young, young team that's only going to get better with time," Lufkins said in the wake of his team's lopsided defeat. "I thought our guys looked real good out there and moved the ball around well. We just didn't get it done. I'm not making excuses, but it's a little tough when we have to compete against kids that are three, four, five years older than us. But the kids never complain, they just go out there and play ball."
The Eagles offense failed to get into any kind of rhythm, as the much larger Maplewood frontcourt continually denied the OCS guards' entry passes into the paint with their 1-3-1 defense. The Bears consistently pressured the OCS guards into forcing costly turnovers, which in turn led to fast breaks and easy buckets.
By the end of the first quarter, Maplewood had opened up a 27-6 lead, with the Eagles' only points coming from a pair of Chris Bjork triples. In the second quarter, Bjork continued to provide the bulk of the Eagles' scoring, knocking down five more points for 11 of the Eagles' 18 first half points. Chris Teeple was the only other Eagle to light up the scoreboard in the first half, scoring seven of his nine points in the second quarter. When the buzzer sounded to signify the end of first half play, the Bears found themselves going into the locker room with a 44-18 lead.
The second half did not prove to be much better for the Eagles' offense, either, as the Bears outscored the younger OCS team 21-12 in route to the 65-30 win and 35-point margin of victory. The Eagles' offense was led by Chris Bjork with 14 points, including four three-pointers, and Chris Teeple with 9 points. Anthony Bjork and Todd Carrick rounded out the Eagles' scoring, notching three and four points, respectively.
The Eagles hope to finish their regular season on a winning note, as they square off with Mackinac Island in a pair of make-up games slated for there on Feb. 22 and home on Feb. 28.
