It’s been 12 years since Oak Ridge High’s varsity girls’ basketball team has lost a game by 29 points.

Saturday’s 84-55 loss to Hanford (21-3), the top-ranked team from the South Section and ranked 25th in the state by MaxPreps, was a big one in more ways than one. Oak Ridge coach Steve White hopes for a similar response to the one the team had in 1998.

“We lost to Acalanes by 40 in 1998 and later that year went further in the playoffs than we ever had,” White said. “Hopefully this loss will have a similar motivation for us this year.”

As the final score indicates, there wasn’t much that went right for the Lady Trojans on Saturday. In fact, Hanford did to them what Oak Ridge does to many of its opponents – ended things early by outscoring them 47-23 by halftime.

“We turned the ball over a few too many times and shot ourselves in the foot by not giving ourselves a chance to get shots up,” White said. “Then they got hot from the field and just pulled away. They hit 15 3-pointers and it was just one of those nights where it went well for the other team and not so well for us.”

White was happy that his team battled hard in the second half and played competitively where they were only outscored by five points.

Sara James led Oak Ridge with 28 points. Caitlin Welsch scored eight and was followed by Kristen Ramona with seven and Megan Griswold with six.

Back to local opponents, Oak Ridge (7-0, 19-3) picked up a pair of league wins last week, easily defeating Vista del Lago on Jan. 27, 74-37 and then Ponderosa on Friday, 73-28.

The Lady Trojans solidified the fact that it’s the team to beat in the Sierra Valley Conference with the convincing win over Vista. Oak Ridge jumped all over the Eagles early, working up an 18-3 lead five minutes into the game and it led 25-7 after one quarter. Turnovers proved to be Vista’s undoing, as it had multiple miscues in the first quarter that led to the 18-point deficit.

White was pleased with his team’s performance.

“Everyone who stepped on the court had a positive moment, but we can still get better,” White said. “Our defensive pressure was good and when we’re playing like that, it definitely seems like we have more than five people on the court.”

James played a strong game, scoring 13 of her 29 points in the first quarter, outscoring the Eagles by six.

The second quarter was a carbon copy of the first, as the scores nearly doubled with Oak Ridge taking a 47-12 lead into the break.

“The game was over at the half,” White said, “but to Vista’s credit, they played hard the entire game. It’s hard to coach games like this because you don’t want to run up the score, but at the same time, we’ve still got to work on our stuff.”

White sat James and post Caitlin Welsch for the entire third quarter, starting Ramona, Kelsi Danciart, Carly Bettencourt, Alexa Pickett and Stefanie Walberg in the second half. The Eagles scored the first six points of the quarter and outscored the Lady Trojans, 16-10.

Following James’ 29 points, Welsch and Danciart both added 10.

Oak Ridge led Ponderosa 24-4 after one quarter and 50-7 at halftime on its way to a big win on Friday. James scored 26, followed by Dakota McLarnan’s 11 and Welsch’s 10.

Oak Ridge’s only game this week was Tuesday against Galt. The team’s next game is at Union Mine on Feb. 9.