By Dean Vaglia
Leader Staff Writer
The Oxford High School varsity basketball teams had a downturn in performance last week, both the boys and girls adding losses to their records.
The boys were the first to hit the court on Tuesday the 18th, taking on the Holly Bronchos and losing 45-57.
“Uncharacteristically of us we played pretty poorly from a defensive perspective,” Steve Laidlaw, boys varsity coach, said. “We have been playing good defense throughout the year. We did not play very good defense against Holly. We got behind by six going into halftime and cut it to one early in the third. [We] made a few defensive mistakes and the next thing you know we’re down by double digits.”
Laidlaw identifies turnovers as the most glaring issue facing the team’s play, an issue constantly worked on in practice.
“There is not a doubt in my mind that if we do not turn the ball over and we get shots up, we are gonna make shots,” Laidlaw said. “It is getting to the point where we can put shots up, because when we put shots up, we make them.”
Senior team captain Alec Brown was unable to play against Holly, but joined the boys for the Friday the 21st game against the Southfield Arts & Technology Warriors, Oxford winning, 46-34.
“Once again we turned the ball over too much in the first half, but in the second half we were absolutely outstanding,” Laidlaw said. “We outscored them 36-16 in the second half to win.”
Seniors Bryce Esman and Mitchell Viviano and juniors Lucas Bottene and Logan Rozanski all had high scoring games on Friday, putting up a combined score of 39 points.
The victory sets the boys at 1-0 in league play and third in the OAA Blue standings, following 3-0 leader Rochester High School and 2-0 runners up Rochester Adams.
Thursday the 20th saw the Lake Orion Dragons outmatching the varsity girls for a close 36-32 loss in the team’s sole game last week.
“My girls played extremely hard,” varsity girls coach Rachel Bryer said. “I was really proud of our defense overall. We have been working on making defense our number one priority and making sure that our defense is what sets the tone for the whole team … We are focused on rebounding and making sure that we are taking care of the ball on offense and getting the ball on defense, as far as getting those steals.”
While Bryer was proud of the defensive effort, she says the girls will practice offense more this week.
“Developing and getting my players ready for an offense and teaching them the movements, that’s something that takes time and something that we need to continue to work on,” Bryer said.
Freshman Allison Hufstedler played a strong game with 10 points and five rebounds, and seven of the team’s 10 players scored against the Dragons.
This week the boys play the Troy Athens Redhawks and the girls play against the Rochester Adams Highlanders and the Bloomfield Hills Black Hawks. The Adams game is at 7 p.m. in Rochester Hills on Jan. 25, while the Bloomfield Hills and Athens games are back-to-back at the Oakland University O’Rena at 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. respectively on Jan. 28.