With authority
- Updated: January 28, 2025
Oxford’s boys put on dominating show against short-handed Alexandria, reclaim Calhoun County basketball supremacy with 24th title, seventh in nine years.
74th Calhoun County Tournament results
FRIDAY, Jan. 17
No. 12 Saks 52, No. 13 Faith Christian 48
No. 11 Jacksonville Christian 73, No. 14 Wellborn 60
SATURDAY, Jan. 18
No. 6 Weaver 87, JCA 52
No. 5 Jacksonville 78, Saks 60
MONDAY, Jan. 20
No. 7 White Plains 60, No. 10 Pleasant Valley 47
No. 8 Ohatchee 67, No. 9 Donoho 51
No. 3 Anniston 57, Weaver 38
No. 4 Piedmont 52, Jacksonville 50
SATURDAY, Jan. 25
No. 2 Alexandria 53, White Plains 38
No. 1 Oxford 89, Ohatchee 39
MONDAY, Jan. 27
Semifinals
Alexandria 60, Anniston 56
Oxford 73, Piedmont 40
TUESDAY, Jan. 28
Championship
Oxford 66, Alexandria 32
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE — Dominance might take a year off, but Oxford’s recent dominance in Calhoun County boys’ basketball returned in a big way Tuesday.
Most valuable player Jaylen Alexander led the way with 21 points, had the top-seeded Yellow Jackets downed No. 2 Alexandria 66-32 in Pete Mathews Coliseum.
Oxford (20-6) won its seventh county title in nine years and 24th overall in the tournament’s 74-year history. The Yellow Jackets also won their 10th county title in Joel Van Meter’s 15-year run as their head coach, which established a new tournament record for coaches.
Van Meter teared up when reflecting on it. He looked down his bench then looked across the court at long-time Oxford athletics director Larry Davidson.
“I’m not trying to downplay anything, but it’s the emotion of talking about my team,” he said. “They’ll tell you. I get emotional all of the time with them.
“It’s the emotion of 15 years of all of the players, coaches, that man sitting over there (Davidson). There is a lot of emotion in it. It’s not necessarily about winning. It’s just being able to do what God had planned for me.”
Alexander called Van Meter “a great coach.”
“He coaches on a daily basis,” Alexander said. “He’s doing it for us. We just go out there hoop for him and hoop for God and just leave it all out there on the floor.”
Alexander’s MVP performance comes a year after he played with a wrist injury and finished with just six points in a 56-36 loss to Jacksonville in the final. A year later, he occupied a very different space.
“He didn’t need to do anything in this tournament to solidify himself,” Van Meter said. “He’s been playing since he was an eighth-grader. His game speaks for itself.
“He’s unselfish. He’s got almost 200 assists on the season, so he’s not just a scorer. He’s a prototypical points guard, and he just goes out and plays the game the way that you’re supposed to play.”
As for memories of the 2024 county final, Van Meter acknowledged that the Yellow Jackets wanted to reclaim the title “pretty bad.”
“I’d rate it about a six, seven,” Alexander said when asked how badly the Yellow Jackets wanted it. “We learned from our mistakes last year. We had a tough loss last year. You fail, and you’re going to learn, and we just got better from that.”
Oxford also got 14 points from Jaylin Taylor, who had four 3-pointers. Jayden Lewis, the tournament’s most outstanding defensive player, added 12.
Alexandria (23-4) made its first appearance in the county finals since 2015 and sought its 14th the county title. Tournament most outstanding player Quendavion McDowell led the Valley Cubs with 13 points, but the game quickly got out of hand.
Alexandria coach Will Ginn said the Valley Cubs, ranked No. 3 in Class 4A, can take lessons forward, into the postseason.
“We’ve got to get more physical, and I’m not talking about standing around,” he said. “Just standing our ground.
“We had three fouls until the last couple of minutes, and we only had five fouls called on us the whole game. It was a physical game. It was called like a junior–college game, and most of our games aren’t called like that. We didn’t adjust to that.”
The Valley Cubs went without senior guard Chris Aguirre, who underwent surgery Tuesday after suffering a broken arm in Monday’s semifinal game with Anniston.
Aguirre attended Tuesday’s game, wearing a cast and sling on his right arm. He said doctors told him to expect about four months of recovery after doctors surgically inserted plates and screws.
“It’s been surprising, honestly,” he said. “I didn’t expect things to go like that. I think things are going pretty smoothly so far.”
Ginn said Aquirre’s presence Tuesday lifted the Valley Cubs spirits.
“I hate that it happened to him. He’s such a good kid,” Ginn said. “He works so hard. You just hate to see that happen to a kid, but man, he’s in good spirits. I know the team was happy to see him him.
“He’s probably drugged up right now, but he just wanted to be a part of us. I’m just glad he got to make it.”
2025 All-Tournament team
MVP: Jaylen Alexander, Oxford.
OFFENSIVE MVP: Quendavion McDowell, Alexandria.
DEFENSIVE MVP: Jayden Lewis, Oxford.
Alexandria: Jaylen Henderson.
Anniston: Ja’Korie Carr, Caleb Ackles.
Jacksonville: Kamouri Harmon.
Jacksonville Christian: Jesse Gannaway.
Ohatchee: Jake Roberson.
Oxford: Marcus Perry Jr., Chris Latson, Jaylin Taylor.
Saks: Christian Hall.
Weaver: KeShawn Allen.
White Plains: Ethan Turner.
Piedmont: Colton Proctor.
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