Back in the groove
- Updated: December 19, 2020
Oxford wins second game in as many days back from quarantine, beats Midfield for 10th win before Christmas
Saturday’s games
Oak Mountain Invitational
Oxford 70, Midfield 57
Cherokee County Christmas Invitational
Girls games
Gaylesville 46, Cedar Bluff 43
Spring Garden 74, Springville 28
Collinsville 55, Sand Rock 37
Cherokee County 70, Handley 56
Boys games
Cedar Bluff 61 Gaylesville 55
Spring Garden 48, Cherokee County 44
Sand Rock 65, Collinsville 35
Regular season
Coosa Christian girls 55, Ashville 42
By East Alabama Sports Today
PELHAM – Two days off the court is usually too long for the Oxford basketball team, so when the Yellow Jackets had to shut it down for 10 days earlier this month because of COVID-19 contact tracing there was a lot to be concerned about.
The Jackets were on a roll and now they faced an unplanned time out.
They finally got back on the floor earlier this week, practicing for two days before playing the last two days and they haven’t seemed to miss a beat. They won their second game in less than 18 hours Saturday, beating Midfield 70-57 as a final-day replacement in the seventh-place game of the Oak Mountain Invitational.
They tuned up with a 12-point win over Hazel Green at home Friday night.
“To be honest with you, I’m overjoyed with the way that they played,” Jackets coach Joel VanMeter said. “You’re in the middle of the season and you take 10 days off, that’s a lot. Traditionally, for us, two days is a lot of days. To be able to respond the way they responded I think it just says a ton about each of those kids individually.”
The Jackets were in control Saturday most of the way. Justin Moore scored 14 points in the first half and led three Oxford scorers in double figures with 20 points. Rylan Houck had 18 and Roc Taylor had 13. The trio combined for 52 points against Hazel Green. The Jackets hit eight 3-pointers against Midfield, nine in the Hazel Green game.
They opened an 11-point halftime lead with a big second quarter, then came out of the break with a big third quarter for the second game in a row. They outscored Midfield 24-16 in the third Saturday and Hazel Green 24-14 Friday.
“That’s good because one of the games we lost our third quarter was awful (Plainview),” VanMeter said. “Of course, a lot has to do with the team you’re playing. What the guys have been doing are making adjustments defensively. We’re starting to get more stops defensively in the third quarter after getting a chance to talk about what other teams are doing. And offensively we’re starting to understand what we’re trying to do.”
The victory gave Oxford 10 wins before Christmas. They get the chance to add one more before the holiday when they play an area game at Southside Tuesday. That’s the reason they wanted to get in these two games coming off the quarantine.
“I think that tells you what type of team you have,” VanMeter said of the pre-Christmas benchmark. “Somebody showed me the other day that MaxPreps had us with the highest strength of schedule in 6A or second to Huffman. When you look at it, we’re playing good teams and we’re able to win games. I think the fact you can win 10 games before Christmas and playing a hard schedule tells you what you’re working with.”
Oxford 70, Midfield 57
OXFORD (10-2) – Cordell Chatman 2 1-2 9, Rylan Houck 7 1-1 18, Peyton Watts 1 0-0 3, Mike McGraw 0 0-0 0, Roc Taylor 6 0-0 13, Bakari Dailey 0 2-2 2, Justin Moore 9 2-2 20, Josh Johnson 1 0-0 2, Jarek Burroughs 1 0-0 3, Zurrell Garrett 0 0-0 0, Aaron McFarland 0 0-0 0. Totals 28 6-7 70.
MIDFIELD – Damariee Jones 5 1-3 11, Anthony Johnson 4 1-3 9, Jamarkus Alexander 8 3-6 21, Shannon Jones 3 0-1 7, Myles Waller 0 0-0 0, James White 0 0-0 0, Patrick Underwood 1 1-1 3, Malek Kendricks 1 2-2 5, Terrell Thomas 1 1-2 3. Totals 23 9-18 57.
Oxford 14 19 24 13 – 70
Midfield 13 9 16 19 – 57
3-point goals: Oxford 8 (Chatman 2, Houck 3, Watts, Taylor, Burroughs); Midfield 2 (S. Jones, Kendrick). Technical fouls: Moore. Total fouls: Oxford 18, Midfield 10. Officials: Pretner, Coleman, Lovell.
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