Oakville Boys Stumble at Mehlville

When combined, black, gold and green make pink. At least that was the case Tuesday night as Mehlville hosted district rival Oakville for a conference matchup dedicated to Coaches vs. Cancer.

Spectators from both schools packed Mehville’s gym donning pink in support of the event, which was a fundraiser benefitting cancer research.

Oakville lost the road game, 56-50, for its first Suburban West Conference loss of this season. The Tigers (12-9) are now 4-1 in league play and tied with Lafayette (4-1) for first. Oakville owns the tiebreaker since they defeated Lafayette earlier this season. Mehlville is (8-12)  is  2-3.

With just under two minutes to play in the game, the Tigers were down by nine points and Mehlville looked as if it would cruise to its eighth victory of the season.

However, Oakville (12-9, 4-1) made it interesting with a late push by senior guard Javier Duren who hit a 3-pointer with 11.5 seconds left to go to cut the Panthers’ lead to 53-50. But that would be the team’s last score of the game. 

Mehlville started the game with defensive intensity that stifled Oakville’s offense.

“We identified their good players. Obviously we knew who they were. And then you know it was up to our guys to know where they’re at all times,” said Mehlville coach Andy Guethle.

Oakville’s scoring trio of Duren (16.5 points per game), senior Dan Zehner (13.7 points per game) and freshman Austin Gillmann (8.7 points per game) were held to only seven points total in the first half.

The first half was slow offensively for both teams, looking tense and struggling to get shots to fall early. The Tigers led 9-8 after the first quarter, but a double-digit output by the Panthers in the second gave Mehlville a slim, two-point lead going into the half, 19-17.

"We just can’t come out to good starts," Guethle said. “It’s like we always come out tight and it’s something that we’ve addressed, and I don’t know how to fix it.

"We’ve tried different ways to fix it, and ultimately you just can’t be nervous out there, you just got to play. And I thought we did that for a lot of the game, so that was nice.”

Mehlville forwards Eldin Dilberovic and Adis Mujakic led the way for the Panthers in the second half as they came out hitting shots. Dilberovic scored a team-high 14 points in the game, followed by Mujakic's 13 points.

The Panthers outscored the Tigers 16-10 in the third quarter, pushing their lead to eight going into the final eight minutes of the contest.

Duren finished the game with 15 points, but the Mehlville pressure clearly made it difficult for him to get a rhythm, especially at the free-throw line. Duren was only 5-for-10 from the foul line, and Oakville collectively was 12-for-23.

Both teams lit up the scoreboard in the fourth quarter as Oakville won the scoring battle 23-21, but still fell short.

Oakville will look to rebound at Webster Groves on Wednesday night.