Cam Thomas scored 30 points and hustled for seven rebounds to lead No. 14 Oak Hill over No. 15 Wasatch Academy 76-65 on Saturday night for the championship of the ‘Iolani Prep Classic.
Jamari Sibley wreaked havoc on the glass and finished with 18 points and six boards. K.K. Robinson added 10 points.
Mike Sanders, the blur at guard, led Wasatch with 22 points. Richard Isaacs Jr. added 19 and Fousseyni Traore tallied 14 points with 10 rebounds.
It is the eighth crown for the team from Mouth of Wilson, Va., all under longtime coach Steve Smith. Oak Hill is now 21-1.
“Last time we here in the finals we got beat. I lost to Findlay (Prep) pretty handily, so we hadn’t won since 2014, so we’re excited,” said Smith, now in his 35th season as head coach.
“We played well start to finish. We stuck to our game plan,” said Thomas, who was named the tourney’s Most Valuable Player. “Me being a scorer, to be a great player, you’ve got to be hungry to win games. Constant killing. I never want to slow down and stop. I want to keep killing.”
Thomas was a nonstop machine, going up and down the court, attacking the paint consistently. Through three quarters, the 6-foot-4 senior took 14 free-throw attempts and made 12. The entire Wasatch squad was 4-for-6 from the line going into the final stanza.
The Warriors thrived on the physicality of the game as officials allowed a little more bumping and banging. The game wasn’t quite decided until the second half. Oak Hill led 40-37, then went into defensive lockdown. Wasatch shot just 2-for-17 from the field in the third as Oak Hill opened the lead to 16 points.
“They made five 3s in the first half. We wanted to get to their 3-point shooters and close out,” Smith said. “Try to limit them to one shot. They were getting some second-shot opportunities in the first half.”
Wasatch (15-1), a small private school in Mount Pleasant, Utah, made history even in defeat. The Tigers are the first team from Utah to reach the tourney final. They had played with uncanny chemistry and timing in their first three wins, but couldn’t get in sync against Oak Hill.
“We were playing more their style in the third quarter,” Wasatch coach David Evans said. “I probably should have called a time out earlier. They’re a very good team.”
Wasatch did a lot of switching out of man defense, but they weren’t able to put a lid on Thomas, who had 15 points by halftime.