The basketball team had another successful season during the 2017-2018 school year. While we did not achieve all our goals, it was a fun and exciting year. The team finished with an 8-5 record against a wide variety of talent. Again, the Ox started the year off with a loss, but quickly recovered with a win against Fishers Island. A tough road game against St. Andrew's push the team back to 1-2 before rattling off 6 straight wins - 5 of which were on the road! At the end of the season tournament, Oxford annihilated the Grove School to earn a spot in the championship game against host St. Thomas More.
The championship game started in a feverous pace in a very open ended game. Oxford led 6-0 before STM took the lead. The whole first half was a back and forth battle which ended at 25-21 deficit for the "Boys in Blue". As the second half started, the Ox continued to fight and play with a positive spirit and attitude, but unfortunately the shots did not agree with that spirit. Soon the game was lost and the season ended on a disappointing note. This season itself was not a failure. With the loss of such a key defensive figure like Noah Roberts, games defensively would not come as easy. However, the "Core-Four" of seniors, Simon Louis, Ronald Mugisha, Livingston Ferdinand, and Danny Harrington led the defensive charge increasing the number of steals per game for the team. This season we also added a trapping press, which on the whole was very successful. While it did not lead to a steal on every position, the press was only broken on three occasions for layups.
With the returning group of seniors came a fresh mix of players, both during the year and at the start of the season. New players like Jaswani Evans, Luke Briglin, and Kyle Zschokke added some much needed height joining rotation players like Max Lakritz, Victor Lathuras, and Bruce Ngoga. Ronald Mugisha led the team averaging 20.5 points per game, including a season and career high 30 in the final.
It was a bittersweet moment in the student-faculty game watching the seniors play their last "Oxford" game. Thanks to everyone for supporting the team this year!
Commenti