After losing 54-44 at Shorecrest Friday, Dec. 5, the Oak Harbor High School boys basketball team trimmed visiting Burlington-Edison 57-45 Saturday.

The win over the Tigers was a career first for new Wildcat varsity coach John Weston.

Oak Harbor (1-2) entertains Mount Vernon (0-2) at 7:15 Tuesday, Dec. 9.

The Bulldogs are coached by Scott Collins, who teaches physical education in the Oak Harbor School District. Collins was originally named the Oak Harbor head coach when Mike Washington resigned last year. Collins asked for and was granted a release from that commitment to accept the job at Mount Vernon, his alma mater.

In the win over Burlington-Edison (0-3), Oak Harbor raced to an 11-0 lead and led 11-4 after the first quarter.

The Wildcats’ Zach Jones hit two three-balls and scored nine points in the second quarter, but the Tigers eventually trimmed the lead to 27-25 at the break.

Burlington scored the first four points of the second half to go ahead 29-27, but six straight points by Oak Harbor, two from Diangelo McKinney and four from Dyllan Harris, helped Oak Harbor regain the lead.

The Wildcats led 34-31 at the end of the third period and would never trail again.

Burlington knotted the score at 38 with 6:20 left in the game. Harris then rattled off seven straight points,  McKinney added a bucket and Jake Sturdevant scored off an assist from Harris and the ‘Cats took a 49-38 lead.

A pair of three-point plays allowed Burlington-Edison to make it 49-44, but the Tigers would get no closer.

Sean Erskine sealed the game for Oak Harbor by hitting five free throws in the final 22 seconds.

Harris, who had 10 points in the fourth quarter, led all scorers with 23. Jones finished with 12 points, McKinney eight, Sturdevant seven and Erskine seven.

Tarren Lautenbach scored 16 for the Tigers.

“We played with a little more poise,” Weston said. “There was more buy-in to what we were trying to do; more maturity.”

In the loss to Shorecrest, the Wildcats cut the Scots lead to three in the third quarter and five in the fourth but couldn’t complete the comeback, Weston said.

“We missed a couple of good chances,” he said. “When we needed to make a stop or make a play, we couldn’t.”

Oak Harbor also couldn’t find the hoop in the second half, sinking only four field goals. Three of the four were three-pointers by Harris.

Shorecrest led 18-15 after the first quarter and 35-29 at halftime.

Each team scored only five points in the third quarter.

Harris finished with 23 points; Erskine seven; Anthony Powell and McKinney four; and Jones, Ben Fikse and Sturdevant two.

Fikse rolled his ankle in the game and didn’t play against Burlington-Edison.

Drew Magaoay scored 20 points for the Scots.