Getting started
- Updated: November 12, 2022
Jacksonville, Oxford open their basketball seasons with close losses, Oxford girls suffer first loss of the season
SATURDAY’S GAMES
King’s Ridge 68, Jacksonville 64
Central-Phenix City 55, Oxford 52
Girls
Good Hope 57, Oxford 42
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
LILBURN, Ga. – Nobody ever said it would be easy defending a state championship, no matter what state you’re playing in.
Jacksonville played its first game as the defending Alabama 4A state champions Saturday. The Golden Eagles started off like a team excited about the new season, but they lost their legs late in the game and lost to King’s Ridge (Ga.) 68-64 in a midday border war at Berkmar High School.
It was their first game since winning their first state title in basketball last March and their first game under new head coach Tres Buzan, who replaced a stunned Shane Morrow right before the start of the school year.
“It’s like they always say, it’s hard to win one and it’s harder to repeat,” Buzan said. “That’s true because everybody is going to give you their best game.
“We didn’t go into this game talking about that. We went into this game talking about how we define this season. Everything that’s happened behind this is great and can be celebrated, but all those wins don’t mean a thing this year. You don’t get to count those on your record. We’ve just got to keep getting better.”
Their start couldn’t have been better. Devin Barksdale hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter and the Golden Eagles led wire-to-wire in the first half. They jumped out to a 10-point lead on last year’s Georgia 1A Private state runners-up and held a 38-32 halftime lead.
But their fortunes changed at halftime. The Tigers got their Samford/Princeton back-door cuts – the likes of which Barksdale said “we ain’t really seen before in the state of Alabama” – working in the second half. They took their first lead on top scorer Micah Hoover’s 3-pointer midway through the third quarter and the game went back and forth until they took the lead for good on Isaac Martin’s back-door bucket with six seconds left in the quarter.
“That’s a really good team we played today,” Buzan said. “We knew their off-ball stuff as far as the screens and the flares and all that stuff, but, man, seeing it on film is one thing and actually guarding it in person is another thing.
“They’ve got some really good players and that was good for us. We need to see good competition at this stage of the season. We’ve got to get better in some defensive rotations, but we’ll get there.”
They stretched the lead to 10 after three straight buckets by Hoover. They led by eight with three minutes to play , but John Broom stepped up to bring the Golden Eagles within three.
Broom hit a 3 and then a steal and layup to make it 62-59. He missed a potential game-tying 3 and Jackson Thomas blocked another attempt that resulted in the Golden Eagles’ third shot-clock violation of the game. A few moments later, Zakary Thomas scored one of those back-door layups and the Tigers were up 66-61 with 1:12 to go.
“Honestly, I thought we competed really hard; I was proud of the guys’ effort that they gave,” Buzan said. “They never quit on it. It just seemed like the second half we kind of ran out of gas a little, needed to be in a little better shape. The shots we were hitting in the first half we were short on and that’s just us getting to be in better shape and clean up a few things.
“What’d we do, lose by four, right there at the end? A couple of those shots we were short on, we don’t give up a freakin’ back door right there; just some crucial points where they made plays and we didn’t. We’ve just got to put that where we get the stops and we’re making the plays. We’ll get there.”
Broom led all scorers with 28 points, and had 17 in the second half. Cam Johnson, Caden Johnson and Barksdale had 12 apiece. Hoover had 23 for King’s Ridge, going 11-of-12 from the floor.
“It’s not a great way to start, we didn’t win the game, but we got better as a team.; that’s the bigger goal,” Broom said. “We’re a really good team still. They were a really good team also. We knew they were going to be a good team,; t was going to be a battle. I think we’re still good, I think we can still achieve our goal. That just made us better is all.”
King’s Ridge 68, Jacksonville 64
KING’S RIDGE (1-0) – Micah Hoover 11-12 0-0 23, Jackson Thomas 5-7 2-2 14, Isaac Martin 4-9 2-2 11, Zakary Thomas 2-3 4-4 8, William Jobe 3-4 0-0 6, Jaydon Cole 2-7 0-0 6, Callan Wright 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-42 8-8 68.
JACKSONVILLE (0-1) – John Broom 9-17 6-8 28, Cam Johnson 5-8 1-1 12, Devin Barksdale 4-13 1-2 12, Caden Johnson 6-12 0-0 12, Ethan Duke 0-0 0-0 0, Jaquan Ervin 0-0 0-0 0, Jaliek Long 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-51 8-11 64.
| King’s Ridge | 14 | 18 | 18 | 18 – | 68 |
| Jacksonville | 22 | 16 | 10 | 16 – | 64 |
3-point goals: King’s Ridge 6-15 (Hoover 1-1, J. Thomas 2-3, Martin 1-3, Z. Thomas 0-1, Jobe 0-1, Cole 2-6); Jacksonville 8-25 (Broom 4-9, Cm. Johnson 1-4, Barksdale 3-9, Cd. Johnson 0-2, Long 0-1). Rebounds: King’s Ridge 26 (Hoover 6, J. Thomas 8, Martin 1, Z. Thomas 2, Jobe 3, Cole 2, Wright 2); Jacksonville 16 (Broom 4, Cm. Johnson 4, Barksdale 3, Cd. Johnson 1, Duke 2, Ervin 1). Total fouls: King’s Ridge 13, Jacksonville 18.
Central-Phenix City 55, Oxford 52
PHENIX CITY – It was a young, relatively inexperienced Oxford team that got off to a slow start, but once the Yellow Jackets got going, they made a game of it and actually grabbed a lead in the second half.
“We had mistakes throughout the game that a very inexperienced team makes, but overall we showed we’ve got a lot of grit to us and that’s why we were in the game,” Oxford coach Joel VanMeter said. “It took us a minute to kind of figure out we really do know what we’re doing. I was very encouraged with the way we fought.”
The Jackets, who have only two players who got any real varsity minutes last year (and neither is older than a sophomore), scored just four points in the first quarter and fell behind 10-4. But they settled in and made it a one-point game at halftime.
Freshman Jaylen Alexandria scored nine of his game-high 21 points in the second quarter. T.J. Allen hit three of his four 3-pointers in the third quarter and finished with 15 points. Sophomore Jayden Lewis, who joined the team this week after football season, had nine of his 11 points in the second half.
OXFORD (0-1) – Jaylen Alexander 7 6-10 21, Caleb Sanders 0 0-2 0, Dashaun Callaway 1 0-0 2, TJ Allen 5 1-2 15, Chase Truitt 0 0-0 0, Jordan Kelley 0 0-0 0, Brock Reaves 1 0-0 3, Jayden Lewis 4 3-6 11. Totals 18 10-20 52.
CENTRAL-PC – Tereis Benson 1 1-2 3, Dezmond Williams 5 2-4 12, Willie Townsend 1 2-2 5, Bruce Dawson 6 0-1 15, Emaree Griffin 1 0-1 2, Keyon Burns 1 2-4 5, Tykavious Morgan 0 0-0 0, Jonah Jones 2 0-0 4, Tyjor Cooper 0 0-0 0, Demari Elder 3 3-6 9. Totals 20 10-20 55.
| Oxford | 4 | 17 | 16 | 15 – | 52 |
| Central | 10 | 12 | 17 | 16 – | 55 |
3-point goals: Oxford 6 (Alexander, Allen 4, Reaves); Central 5 (Townsend, Dawson 3, Burns). Fouled out: Sanders. Total fouls: Oxford 20, Central 20. Officials: Simpson, Paul, Gamble.
Girls
Good Hope 57, Oxford 42
KIMBERLY – When you can’t score, you can’t win. The Oxford girls had trouble scoring against a good Good Hope team and suffered its first loss of the season 57-42 in the Sweet HOMElife Girls Tip-Off Challenge at Mortimer Jordan.
The Lady Jackets (2-1) got a team-high 17 points from Justice Woods, but got scoring from only four other 10 players who got into the game. Good Hope hit nine 3-pointers in the game and placed four scorers in double figures.
OXFORD (2-1) – Xai Whitfield 4 0-1 9, Justice Woods 7 1-3 17, Keziah Mickler 0 0-0 0, Mya McGrue 4 0-0 8, Jamea Gaston 0 0-0 0, Ava Thomas 0 0-0 0, Mileah Prince 0 0-0 0, Bri Wilson 0 0-0 0, Shaniya Calloway 0 0-0 0, Kaylen Kenney 0 2-2 2, Shay Montgomery 3 0-1 6. Totals 18 3-7 42.
GOOD HOPE – Bailey Keef 0 0-0 0, Emma Thompson 0 0-0 0, Lille McClusky 0 0-0 0, Ivey Maddox 4 4-6 14, Rudi Derrick 6 3-4 16, Charley Johnson 1 0-0 2, Jolee Mehan 0 0-0 0, Lexi Collins 0 0-0 0, Heather Tetro 3 2-2 10, Bailey Tetro 5 1-2 15. Totals 19 10-14 57.
| Oxford | 10 | 11 | 10 | 11 – | 42 |
| Good Hope | 16 | 13 | 11 | 17 – | 57 |
3-point goals: Oxford 3 (Whitfield, Woods 2); Good Hope 9 (Maddox 2, Derrick, H. Tetro 2, B. Tetro 4). Fouled out: McGrue. Total fouls: Oxford 14, Good Hope 12.
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