Oxford, AL – Oxford’s full-court man-to-man defense, hot shooting from Lewis, Alexander spark big second-half as Yellow Jackets down Bob Jones.
Larry & Connie Davidson Classic
FRIDAY’S GAMES
Dothan 56, Vestavia Hills 53
Central-Phenix City 75, Pinson Valley 59
Spring Garden girls , Oxford
Oxford boys 74, Hale County 58
SATURDAY’S SCHEDULE
All boys games
Dothan 77, Hale County 51
Shades Valley 55, Jacksonville 41
Darlington (Ga.) 57, Hiram (Ga.) 51
Fairfield 53, Milton (Fla.) 41
Alexander (Ga.) 90, Central-Phenix City 85 (OT)
Oxford 77, Bob Jones 67
By Joe Medley
OXFORD — Oxford slipped its “desperate” switch again Saturday, and the result was one of the Yellow Jackets’ best halves of the season.
Full-court man-to-man defense and hot shooting from Jayden Lewis and Jaylen Alexander keyed Oxford’s rally from an 11-point halftime deficit to beat visiting Bob Jones in the final game of the 2024 Larry & Connie Davidson Classic.
Lewis scored 21 of his game-high 27 points in the second half, including 13 in the third quarter.
Alexander scored 19 of his 24 points in the second half, including 14 in the fourth quarter.
Oxford (8-4) overcame a 39-28 halftime deficit.
The Yellow Jackets made a theme out of playing “desperate” after losing 36-33 to Hewitt-Trussville on Tuesday. Their second-half showing Saturday looked about as dominant as desperate gets.
It all started with a defense that forced turnovers in bunches in the second half.
“I think we’ve got the best defensive team in the state,” Lewis said. “I mean, tonight, we let 36 points in one half, and that ain’t never happened this season.”
Oxford coach Joel Van Meter went with the full-court man defense after Bob Jones hit eight 3-pointers in the first half. Jacob Parks hit two of those on his way to a team-high 18 points, and Jaylen England hit two while scoring all eight of his points in the first half.
Van Meter called Oxford’s second–half defensive approach “a version of” full-court man.
“We’ve got a couple of different calls that, I’ll be honest with you, we don’t really have in, but good players responded and made good plays,” Van Meter said. “That wasn’t my doing. That was their doing.
“I thought, in the first half, we played satisfied a little bit, for whatever reason. In the second half, we played like we’ve been talking about, desperate. When we play desperate, you can see, we’re athletic. We can fly around. We were much better offensively.”
Lewis “absolutely dominated” in the third quarter, Van Meter said, hitting two 3-pointers amid his offensive eruption.
Van Meter, a Kentucky native, sees shades of former University of Kentucky star Jamal Mashburn in Lewis’ game.
“A guy who can play inside-out, if he can go inside and score around the rim and step to the outside and make those, is really, really hard to guard,” the coach said. “He did a great job of other things, like setting the ball screen and rolling. You can get it to him on the block. He’s patient with it.
“He played both sides. He made some threes, but he was also dominated around the rim.”
Oxford also got 19 points from Marcus Perry, Jr., who hit four 3-pointers while helping Oxford to a 21-19 lead after the first quarter.
“You can be good if you have multiple people who can separate a game for you,” Van Meter said. “It’s about having a good team. It’s not about their names. It’s about what we are together as one.
“You see some glimpses. We’re not there yet, but you see some glimpses.”
