Oak Park Stands Tall in Tri-Valley

St. Bonaventure High knew exactly what to expect from rival Oak Park in a battle for first place in the Tri-Valley League on Wednesday night.

But the Seraphs couldn’t do anything about it.

Taking advantage of its size advantage, Oak Park led almost from start to finish in a 65-55 boys’ basketball victory over St. Bonaventure at Oak Park High.

Behind 6-foot-7 center Zach Smith and 6-4 forwards Jeremy Murphy and Jason Adams, the Eagles (13-6, 3-0) crashed the boards for numerous second and third efforts.

“The rebounding really hurt us, but we knew that could happen coming in,” Coach Gil Kim of St. Bonaventure said.

Coach Rob Hall of Oak Park said his team’s size gives it an advantage against other teams in the league, and it was evident against the Seraphs (13-3, 1-1).

“We’re pretty big and we’ve been riding the backs of those guys all year,” Hall said. “We talked about making them go one (shot) and out and we think we did a pretty good job on the boards.”

It should not come as a surprise that the Eagles were led by Murphy, Adams and Smith.

Or that many of their baskets were the result of offensive rebounds.

Murphy scored 18 points, followed by Adams with 14 and Smith with 13.

It didn’t help St. Bonaventure that Oak Park also made 12 of 13 free-throw attempts and five three-point baskets.

Despite Oak Park’s size advantage, the Seraphs pulled to within two points, 45-43, on a basket by Chris Saunders late in the third quarter.

That was before the Eagles put the game away with a 13-0 run that made it 58-43 midway through the final quarter.

Saunders finished with 18 points and Michael Perez 13 for St. Bonaventure. Perez made only three of 12 shots from the field.

While the victory puts the Eagles in a good position in the league title race, Hall was quick to put it in perspective.

“We knew we had to protect our home court,” he said. “I also coach tennis and, the way I see it, it’s like we just held our serve.”