Indy Chronicler

CONVERSE — For most of three quarters on Tuesday night, Oak Hill’s boys basketball held Tipton well within striking distance, even grabbing a few brief first-half leads.

But when the fourth quarter rolled around, the Blue Devils turned up the heat and showed why they’re the top-ranked team in 2A.

Tipton opened the fourth quarter 5 of 5 from the field, using a 13-0 run to surge to a 63-41 lead, outscoring the host Golden Eagles 23-9 over the final eight minutes to win going away, 73-50, and improving to 20-1.

“For these guys, it’s wonderful getting their 20th win,” Blue Devil coach Cliff Hawkins said. “That’s awesome. You never take that for granted.”

Tuesday’s game snapped a two-game losing skid to Oak Hill and was also Tipton’s sixth straight win as the Devils opened a three-game road stretch to close the regular season. Next up is the Hoosier Conference first-place game at Lafayette Central Catholic on Friday.

Tipton quieted Oak Hill’s upset bid through balanced scoring throughout the game, controlling the boards at a 32-19 clip, and stiff defense down the stretch.

Grady Carpenter and Jackson Money scored 16 points each for the Devils. Sam Quigley opened the game on 4-of-4 shooting on the way to 15 points, and Nolan Swan finished with 11 points.

Those key players fueled the Devils’ decisive run.

With Tipton leading 50-41 at the start of the fourth quarter, Swan knocked down back-to-back shots for five quick points, Money scored in transition, and Quigley and Carpenter followed with back-to-back triples. Just like that it was 63-41 with 5:01 to play and Oak Hill looking up at an insurmountable task.

“There’s been times where it hasn’t been balanced but we are pretty good with that,” Hawkins said. “We all can shoot and it really makes a difference when you can shoot the ball. We do the things that we do well very well, and that’s the key to a great team.”

Tipton shot well throughout the game, knocking down 15 of 28 first-half shots (54%) and finishing the game 30 of 55 (55%).

The Devils jumped out to a 10-3 lead as Swan scored and Quigley wrapped a pair of 3-pointers around a Carpenter hoop. But the Golden Eagles made it clear early they weren’t going to go down quietly.

Oak Hill got within 10-7 before Tipton closed the first frame on a 9-3 run to go up 19-10 at the end of the period.

The Eagles weren’t done. They clawed to within four at 21-17 early in the second quarter. The Devils got the lead up to seven at 24-17 on a Ryan Tracy hoop when Oak Hill’s Levi Trexler and Jace Tonagel caught fire.

Trexler hit a deuce and Tonagel followed with back-to-back triples on an 8-0 run to give Oak Hill its first lead at 25-24. Tracy hit a triple to put Tipton back on top at 27-25 and Trexler responded at the other end with a triple to give the lead back to Oak Hill, 28-27.

“You go on the road at Oak Hill, it’s going to be that way,” Hawkins said. “It’s going to be an effort. They’re a well-coached team and they’re going to get better and better.”

Tipton responded, as Money and Carpenter scored seven straight points to fuel an 11-2 Devil run to close the quarter and give Tipton a 38-30 halftime lead.

Oak Hill battled back to within four points at 42-38 midway through the third quarter, but Tipton responded with another run, this one an 8-0 spurt to take its largest lead, 50-38.

Trexler drilled a 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it 50-41, but Tipton landed its knockout blow to open the fourth.

“We changed our defenses and that caused them a little trouble trying to react to them and then we got out on some transition stuff, got some quick ball movement, got some three’s,” Hawkins said. “That’s pretty tough to keep playing against. We put the surge on, that’s for sure.”

Oak Hill, which had committed four turnovers over the first three quarters, turned the ball over six times over the final eight minutes.

“When we switched up our defenses, they were tired so that helped us,” Hawkins said. “We knew it wouldn’t work if we tried to trap them early, they’re so well coached and fundamentally sound, it took us a while to get to that stuff. We had to play them straight up, hard, man to man in the first half. And then we could kind of mix up some things in the second half so they couldn’t respond with just timeouts.”

Tonagel finished with a game-high 20 points for Oak Hill, hitting six 3-pointers. Trexler followed him with 17 points.

Tracy turned in a nine-point, eight-rebound line for Tipton. Carpenter also grabbed eight rebounds.