Oxford three-peats
- Updated: January 23, 2021
Jackets hold off Anniston to win their third straight county title, fourth in five years and 21stoverall; Anniston’s Kite named MVP
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE — If a championship game ever deserved an exclamation point, Justin Moore delivered it in the final second Saturday night.
The Oxford senior went in alone on the goal as the time wound down in the Calhoun County Basketball Tournament and slammed home a thunderous rim-rattling, backboard-shaking dunk to seal Oxford’s 69-60 win over Anniston for its third straight county title, fourth in five years and 21st overall.
The only question was whether he would get it off before the horn sounded. He did with tenths of a second to spare.
“It was just something to send them home with,” Moore said. “I drove it to half-court and heard the crowd screaming so I just ran and did it.”
“That was really cool,” teammate Rylan Houck said. “Obviously, Justin can jump out the gym. He does it all the time in practice, through the breakaways, windmills, 360, whatever, so we know he’s capable of it. He got the opportunity to try and he finally did it in a game.”
“That was fantastic,” Roc Taylor said. “I knew he was going to do it. He told me he was going to do it.”
“He deserved that moment,” Jackets coach Joel Van Meter said.
Before the dunk, the Jackets hit nine of 12 free throws in the final three minutes to keep Anniston at arm’s length after the Bulldogs had erased a big early deficit to make a game of it.
In a mild bit of controversy, Anniston’s Antonio Kite was voted by the coaches as the tournament MVP. He’s the first player from a losing team in the championship game to win the award since 2019 and third since 2010.
The Jackets came out looking as if they were going to run the Bulldogs out of the gym. They scored the first 16 points of the game and then held on as the game turned into the classic everyone expected it to be. The Bulldogs opened the game with 10 empty possessions and finally broke through on Kite’s 3-pointer with 2:13 left in the quarter.
“First game of County we played Alexandria, started really slow. Coach Van said that’s not the mindset we need to come to any game; it was a learning experience,” Houck said. “White Plains we came out and popped the same way. That’s how we’re going to try to start every game this year, come out with the pop we know we have to do to win. We know what we’re capable of doing and we don’t want to slack off on anything.”
Oxford coach Joel Van Meter didn’t expect Anniston to stay down long. The Bulldogs came from 12 down early in the fourth quarter to beat Jacksonville in the semifinals and had this game tied at 40 with 58.2 seconds left in the third quarter, but they never gained the lead.
Kite and Malcolm Carlisle keyed the Anniston rally. Kite scored 29 points, Carlisle had 22. Both had 17 in the second half.
“We made a good comeback, but we lost it, so there was no comeback and I’m not happy about the comeback,” Kite said.
Houck led Oxford with 22 points and 19 rebounds, his third straight double-double in the tournament. Moore finished with 21 after his dunk. Roc Taylor had 15.
Any of the Yellow Jackets’ big three could have gotten MVP, but the award was bestowed on Kite, the best junior in the state. Coaches ballots were due for tabulation by halftime of the championship game.
Kite is the first player from a losing team in the championship game to win the award since Jayden Stone of Sacred Heart in 2019, the first year of the Yellow Jackets’ current tournament title streak. It also happened as recently as 2012.
“I’m actually not surprised (to be MVP), because I deserved it,” Kite said.
He did, after all, score a tournament-leading 80 points in three tournament games (26.7 ppg). He had two of the top three scoring games in the boys bracket, tied for the single-best game in either bracket (37 points), made 13 of 18 free throws (.722) and everything the Bulldogs do or did runs through him.
He also was named Most Valuable Offensive Player. Oxford’s Taylor, last year’s MVP, was named Most Valuable Defensive Player.
Because of the work his team put in to winning the game Taylor said “somebody on that team (Oxford) deserved the MVP.” A strong case could be made for Houck. He was the Jackets’ leading scorer in the championship game and averaged a double-double in the tournament (19.7 ppg, 15.3 rpg).
He was an absolutely beast in the first half against Anniston, scoring 17 points. He opened the game with a 3-pointer, had a dunk midway through the Jackets’ startling opening run and finished it with a put back basket before the Bulldogs finally scored.
“It’s hard to argue Rylan’s numbers,” Van Meter said. “Who gets our MVP? Our team. Our defense. That’s who gets our MVP. Houck’s numbers … hard to argue.”
It didn’t seem to faze the 6-7 junior post, though.
“You go down the stat sheet, there’s no telling who would have won it,” Houck said. “Justin could have gotten it. Roc could have gotten it. But Spoodie’s a player. There’s no doubt in my mind he got it even though they lost. I’m not mad about it, no emotion about it at all.”
The only emotion was celebrating another County Tournament championship.
Oxford 69, Anniston 60
OXFORD –Cordell Chatman 0 0-0 0, Rylan Houck 6 9-10 22, Peyton Watts 1 0-0 3, Mike McGraw 0 4-6 4, Roc Taylor 7 1-2 15, Justin Moore 7 7-10 21, Josh Patton 2 0-0 4. Totals 23 21-31 69.
ANNISTON –Mark Toyer 2 0-0 5, Antonio Kite 10 6-10 29, Malcolm Carlisle 8 1-3 22, Troy Hall 0 0-0 0, Miciah Myles 1 0-1 2, Tadyn Jones 0 0-0 0, Taishun Hall 0 0-0 0, Kam Sandlin 1 0-2 2, Jamarius Billingsley 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 7-16 60.
Oxford 20 15 9 25 – 69
Anniston 8 14 18 20 – 60
3-point goals: Oxford 2 (Houck, Watts); Anniston 9 (Toyer, Kite 3, Carlisle 5). Technical fouls: Moore, Kite. Fouled out: Toyer. Total fouls: Oxford 16, Anniston 22. Officials McKim, Shirer, Williams.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Van Deerman MVP:Antonio Kite, Anniston
Most Valuable Offensive Player:Antonio Kite, Anniston
Most Valuable Defensive Player:Roc Taylor, Oxford
All-Tournament Team
Brody Baker, White Plains
Josh Ballew, Pleasant Valley
John Broom, Jacksonville
Tristan Brown, Weaver
Malcolm Carlisle, Anniston
Jordan Cosper, Saks
Rylan Houck, Oxford
Caden Johnson, Jacksonville
Antonio Kite, Anniston
Justin Moore, Oxford
Alex Odam, Piedmont
Roc Taylor, Oxford
Landan Williams, Alexandria
Quin Wilson, White Plains
Julian Wright, Alexandria
You must be logged in to post a comment Login