Oakville edges Webster Groves in ThrillerStatesmen fall from ranks of unbeaten

Oakville High edged Webster Groves 71-69 last night in the featurebasketball game of the week.Junior guard Javier Duren drove coast-to-coast and converted the winninglayup with three seconds left to give the Tigers the victory in a gamethat featured two teams with legitimate Final Four aspirations.

Webster Groves won the Class 5 state title in 2008 and Oakville finishedfourth last year in the school's first ever Final Four appearance.The capacity crowd and state-tournament atmosphere at Oakville made itquite evident that this was more than just a nonconference game.Webster Groves tied the game at 69-69 on Kendall Shell's layup with 15seconds left to play. That set the stage for Duren, a long and lanky6'4" guard, who drove the length of the court, put on a spin move andscored the winning points on a left-handed layup.It was also Duren who ended the first half in dramatic fashion as well.His pull-up jumper from 25 feet swished in at the halftime buzzer togive Oakville a two-point lead at halftime.Duren scored 19 points for Oakville, as did 6'6" senior center GarrettReeg. The Tigers were led in scoring by senior guard Toraino Hellems' 20points. Senior Cortez Conners led the Statesmen with 25 points whilefellow senior Derrick Dilworth added 14 points.Oakville, which won its eight game in succession, improved to 18-4 whileWebster Groves fell to 18-1.In the top girls' game of the night, Troy defeated Fort Zumwalt South42-36 in a GAC South contest that went into overtime. Center MaggieFlynn scored a team-high 16 points, including six in the overtimeperiod, to lead the Trojanettes, who improved to 18-3. Fort ZumwaltSouth fell to 17-3 on the season. The two teams have split their twomeetings this season. F.Z. South won the first meeting 49-43 in thechampionship game of the McDonald's Classic at Parkway West.