CONTESTED SHOT — Brooke’s Andrew Petrella has a shot attempt blocked by Oak Glen’s Mason Kell during Tuesday’s game inside the Brooke Wellness Center. - Andrew Grimm

WELLSBURG — It wasn’t the prettiest of basketball games, but for Oak Glen, it was just fine.

The Golden Bears did enough down the stretch to grind out a 49-40 season-opening victory on the road at Brooke Tuesday night in a turnover filled, physical, low scoring contest between youthful programs.

“It was one of those games where you grind it out,” Oak Glen Jerry Everly said. “We had a lot of guys in the lineup that had not been in those situations late in the game before … this was a big learning experience.

“I was concerned that the varsity level, the speed of the game, would be a tough adjustment but I thought they did pretty well and I thought they played really hard. That’s all we asked them to do was come down here and play as hard as they could. We hoped we would be able to hit enough shots to win, and that’s kind of what we did ­– hit just enough to win.”

Oak Glen led 13-10 after one and 17-14 at halftime before the scoring finally picked up in the second half. After having a lead hover around five points most of the third quarter, the Golden Bears pushed it to 10 late in the frame before a Tyler Evans 3 made it an 11-point margin going to the fourth quarter.

Brooke battled back within as close as five in the final minute, but with the Bruins forced to foul, Oak Glen made its shots at the line to put the game away.

“Brooke is physical, they’re not as big as they normally are, but they’re still physical,” Everly said. “They have big, strong guys and they played hard, too. We made some big foul shots at the end.”

For Brooke, a slow start offensively was somewhat expected. It looks to replace most of its scoring from last year, but the effort to get back in it late was a positive sign.

“We have a very young team, a very inexperienced team,” Brooke coach Adam Shinsky said. “We started the first half 0-9, 0-10, and about four of them were layups. All of our guys played really hard, we can’t fault effort at all they played really hard. We expected some growing pains, we knew we were going to struggle shooting … we got better in the fourth quarter, we’ll continued to get better.

“Our guys didn’t quit, we saw in the summer and in practice there is passion there and they play hard. This group has a lot of passion and is going to be something to deal with.”

The Bears were led by 16 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks and an assist from Gavin Geisse before he fouled out with more than two minutes to play. Will Weekley sparked an early Oak Glen lead by scoring the Bears’ first six points on the way to finishing with 11 and six rebounds, while Mason Kell tallied nine points and four assists.

Brooke got 15 points and four rebounds from Andrew Murdock, who also fouled out before the finish, and 13 points from Jemiel McKennen. Both hit a pair of 3s for the Bruins.

UP NEXT

Oak Glen: Hosts county rival Weir High in its home opener on Friday night.

Brooke: Takes on Wheeling Park in the Sam Andy Classic at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling on Friday.

Oak Glen 49, Brooke 40

OG 13-4-16-16 – 49

B 10-4-8-18 – 40

OAK GLEN: Kell 2 4-4 9; Weekley 4 3-4 11; Wiley 1 3-4 5; Geisse 7 2-4 16; Evans 2 1-2 6; Knisley 1 0-0 2; Dawson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17, 13-19; 49.

BROOKE: Yost 1 0-2 2; Sperringer 1 0-0 3; Murdock 5 3-4 15; McKennen 3 5-5 13; Urso 1 1-2 4; Petrella 0 0-2 0; McMahan 0 0-0 0; Fodor 0 0-0 0; Provenzano 0 3-4 3; Morris 0 0-0 0; Ferrell 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 11, 12-19; 40.

3-POINT GOALS: Oak Glen 2 (Kell, Evans); Brooke 6 (Murdock 2, McKennen 2, Sperringer, Urso). ASSISTS: Oak Glen 12 (Kell 4); Brooke 9 (Urso 4). REBOUNDS: Oak Glen 29 (Geisse 11); Brooke 25 (Yost 6). BLOCKS: Oak Glen 4 (Geisse 3); Brooke 3 (Yost 2). TURNOVERS: Oak Glen 26; Brooke 13.