| #7 - Oxford vs. Lafayette (1st Meeting) Girls Basketball 2007-08 - "The Holdout" This game was ugly, this game was low scoring, this game was exactly how the Lafayette Lady Commodores wanted it to be if they were going to beat the Oxford Lady Chargers for the first time in a long time. It almost happened. Oxford was leading 44-43 with 40 seconds to go and had the ball. Oxford had led the entire game but it was never by more than 8 points. Lafayette had called a timeout prior to the possession after making a bucket to get it to that score to set up the defense. Oxford in-bounded easily and trotted up the court. 35 seconds left, Oxford runs the stall offense with Lafayette in a press zone to try and force a turnover. 30 seconds left, Oxford is able to successfully make 3 passes in a weave back to OHS PG Tamera Wadlington. 25 seconds left, Lafayette is still pressing trying to force a turnover, understandable - they had some time to do that without fouling. 20 seconds left, LHS head coach Amy Sutton starts yelling at her players to foul after Oxford has managed to maintain possession for 20 seconds. Lafayette is now racing to strip the ball to maybe get a turnover but if unsuccessful would put Oxford at the Free Throw Line by fouling and surrender a point or two to get the ball back to tie or potentially win. 15 seconds left, Lafayette hacks twice but could not get the ball AND they did not get whistled for a foul despite the referees knowing the situation. Oxford nearly loses the ball but still able to handle it. 10 seconds left, nobody is sitting down, everyone is on their feet cheering hard for their respective teams on hoping that Lafayette is able to stop the clock and have a chance to win or Oxford to play keep-away for 10 more seconds. Oxford used all corners of the floor, nearly loses the ball twice but was able to get back to Wadlington to handle it in space without a Lafayette defender able to reach the ball-handler before being fouled. 5 seconds left, Wadlington dancing wildly to avoid the Lafayette defenders trying to milk every second off as LHS is trying to foul her. Buzzer sounds, Oxford wins 44-43. Charger fans go wild. The Lady Chargers did the unthinkable and managed to waste all 40 seconds off the clock without losing possession all while holding a slim one-point lead where one mistake could have cost them the game - but they never made that mistake. Lafayette somehow was not able to foul Oxford for the last 20 seconds they attempted to do so. For the first 20 seconds, they tried to force a turnover from Oxford who was clearly trying to waste the clock to all zeroes and not score a basket. That way they did not have to burn a foul to force Oxford to the FT line and would have had a chance to win the game if successful. It did appear that they fouled twice, but not to the referees on the court for that game. If Lafayette did foul and Oxford were to make the ensuing two free throws, it would've made the game at best 46-43 - a 3-point advantage (almost as if Oxford actually tried to score instead of burning the clock but....), but Lafayette would have had the chance to force Overtime with a 3-point basket on the next possession with at least some time on the clock. At this point, all the fans were waiting on the boys tip-off and got into the heat of the moment. These type of games just show why you need to attend BOTH Boys and Girls Basketball games - no most girls cannot dunk, but that is not reason enough to attend the other game too right? I attend all of them and this game in particular was exciting from start to finish (especially the finish) which is why this made it all the way to #7 in the Top 20 Games. |
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October 2016
AuthorBen Mikell |