Oxford, AL – Faith Christian gives Oxford all it can handle, but second-seeded Yellow Jackets have enough to push through to the semifinals
CALHOUN COUNTY TOURNAMENT
(At Jacksonville State)
Tuesday’s Boys Games
No. 2 Oxford 55, No. 7 Faith Christian 49
No. 1 Jacksonville 86, No. 8 Saks 39
Wednesday’s Boys Games
No. 3 Alexandria vs. No. 6 White Plains, 4:30 p.m.
No. 4 Anniston vs. No. 5 Piedmont, 7:30 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Oxford may have come into the Calhoun County Tournament as the No. 2 seed, but the Yellow Jackets can’t help feeling like they’re the underdogs. It certainly seemed that way Tuesday night. Nobody likes the biggest kid in the playground and the crowd in Pete Mathews Coliseum was pulling for the other guys, but the Jackets overcame that and the gutsy effort put forth by 1A Faith Christian to win 55-49 in the quarterfinals.
They will play the winner of Wednesday’s Alexandria-White Plains game in Thursday’s 4:30 p.m. semifinal, but it took every ounce of their being to make it. “Coach (Joel Van Meter) talks about it every single day: Preparation is the key to a win,” Jackets guard T.J. Allen said. “We came in, our mindset was, everybody thinks it’s Faith, it’s 1A, but it’s really who wants it more. “They came out on top. We came out on top (of the score), too, don’t get me wrong, but we started getting in a slump, they started scoring, the crowd was going wild. Coach Van talked to us in the huddle – we got chewed out at halftime – and said I want y’all to flip this game around. We came in and showed them what we had to do.”
The longer the Lions stayed in it, the louder the crowd became in its support for them. It could be quite unnerving for a team that has had only two players experience this atmosphere before. Van Meter agreed it was the hardest he’s coached against a Class 1A team not named Sacred Heart, which he said was the “utmost compliment” to the way the Lions played. “I think it puts a ton of pressure on your players,” Van Meter said. “You know me, I’m coaching every game the same, but I think your players feel that more than anybody. Cory’s guys did a great job of never letting us off the hook. They never gave in. They always made that one shot and give them credit for that.”
Faith coach Cory Hughes could feel the support “one hundred percent.” “Everybody always roots for the underdog,” he said. “It was most noticeable in the fourth quarter when we were trying to get a foul shot, they threw it to (Jayden Lewis) and he jumped and got his eyes above the rim and threw the ball through and it was just quiet. It was kind of like ‘is anybody there.’ It was a nice feeling, yeah.” [read more …]
