SHADYSIDE - Oak Glen coach Scott Wiley watched his team fall behind by eight early to Shadyside before a pair of Padyn Eckleberry 3-pointers capped a brief spurt that knotted the score at 14-14.
Eckleberry's second bonus bomb came with 1:46 left in the first as Tigers' coach Tina Yates burned a timeout to refocus her team.
When Wiley looked up again at the end of the first quarter, his team was down nine, 23-14. That fast, the Golden Bears' chances had severely diminished and Shadyside went on to a 77-48 victory.
"We knew coming in Shadyside was a good team ... they only have two losses for a reason,'' Wiley said as his team fell to 8-5. "I told them we can't give them an inch. We tried to play more man defensively, but it seemed like every one of their players was hitting shots."
The Tigers were again paced by the duo of juniors Hayley Holenka and Karli Bonar, who totaled 25 and 21 points, respectively.
While Wiley was impressed with Shadyside's offensive efforts early, Yates was less than enthused with her team's defensive performance during that same stretch.
While the left-handed Eckleberry has a quick release, the Tigers allowed her too much time to spot up and shoot from the perimeter. Oak Glen also had quality looks inside 10 feet, even if they weren't falling.
"Our defensive intensity wasn't where it needed to be,'' Yates said. "I don't know if it's because we didn't have school (Monday) but we came out a little flat."
The inensity slowly crept back to acceptable levels and, along with it, the Tigers' lead.
The Bears finished the half 10 of 27 from the field. Further compounding the problem was seemingly every miss found its way into the rebounding abyss that is senior Brooke Meintel.
Meintel, who finished with a double-double, coralled 12 rebounds-10 in the first half - to go with her 12 points.
"She plays tough and does good things for us on both ends,'' Yates said.
Eckleberry did her best to keep the visitors within striking distance, canning five 3-pointers en route to a team-high 21 points.
But she was unable to match Holenka and Bonar shot-for-shot and Tigers' lead kept growing.
Bonar, the Ohio Valley's leading 3-point shooter, added six more to her season total while also snagging five rebounds and dishing out seven assists.
"She's such an unselfish player,'' Yates said. "She knows an assist is just as good as a bucket and looks to get her teammates involved. She's not going to force her shot."
Vanessa Hissam backed Eckleberry with seven points despite missing the majority of the final three quarters with an ankle injury.
