Lack of ball control prevented the Oxford boys varsity basketball team from scoring their first win of the season.
‘In a nutshell, the problem was they turned the ball over a lot leading the team to give up too many easy shots,? said Head Coach Steve Laidlaw.
The Cats were defeated 81-64 Friday night by the visiting Fenton team.
Down by only one point at the end of the first quarter and only trailing by six at half-time (35-29), the team showed promise to stay toe-to-toe with Fenton.
But repeated turnovers gave Fenton at the end of the third quarter an insurmountable lead of 64-47, which Laidlaw said was too wide of a gap to recover from.
Laidlaw said his team simply didn’t cash-in on rebounds and free throws, which ultimately gave Fenton the victory.
Despite suffering another tough defeat, a number of players distinguished themselves.
Senior Dave Wendt lead the team with 15 points and eight rebounds, junior Bill Keenist shot 11 points, senior Mike Jones played a nice floor game with seven points and junior Tim Ketelhut came off the bench to score four points for the team.
‘They played really well,? said Laidlaw, who remains hopeful that the team will continue to start their games with strength, and eventually play through to close the deal with victories.
Overall the team is 0-6 and 0-2 in the league.
The boys next game is 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 14 at Linden.