Preview: Tipton Blue Devils vs. Oak Hill Golden Eagles
Two dominant guards in Grady Carpenter and Jace Tonagel are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Tipton Blue Devils will head out on the road to face off against the Oak Hill Golden Eagles at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Tipton is coming into the match hot, having won their last five games.
Tipton put the finishing touches on their ninth blowout victory of the season on Saturday. They took their contest at home with ease, bagging a 74-35 victory over Taylor. Given Tipton's advantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 13th, while Taylor is ranked 220th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Tipton relied on the efforts of Jackson Money, who scored 20 points, and Nolan Swan, who scored 19 points along with eight assists and two steals. It was the first time this season that Swan posted eight or more assists. The team also got some help courtesy of Carpenter, who scored nine points along with eight assists and eight rebounds.
Meanwhile, Oak Hill made easy work of Blackford on Friday and carried off a 62-37 win. The win made it back-to-back wins for Oak Hill.
Tonagel continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 18 points along with eight assists and seven steals. He hasn't dropped below 15 points for four straight games. Rj Shugart was another key contributor, scoring 11 points along with two steals.
Tipton pushed their record up to 19-1 with that win, which was their 11th straight at home dating back to last season. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 75.9 points per game. As for Oak Hill, they are on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 10-8 record this season.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as Tipton and Oak Hill are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Tipton hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 69.4 points per game. However, it's not like Oak Hill struggles in that department as they've been averaging 57 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Tipton lost to Oak Hill on the road by a decisive 66-49 margin when the teams last played back in February of 2023. Can Tipton avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
