Oxford wins GCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Title

OXFORD, Georgia – The Oxford College men's basketball team captured the GCAA/Region 17 Division III championship with a 60 to 53 victory over the Golden Knights of West Georgia Technical College.

The championship game turned into a thriller in the rubber match between both squads who had won on the other team's home court.

"We had a simple game plan tonight, which mainly focused on playing hard, smart and together," commented head coach Roderick Stubbs. "We are so proud of these guys, they are a special group and they came together and beat a very good team tonight to win this championship."

In a low scoring affair, the Eagles built a 33 to 20 lead at halftime. Oxford held West Georgia Tech to only 6 field goals in the 1st half on 6 for 21 shooting for 28.6%.  The Eagles converted 10 of 19 field goals for 52.6%.

Oxford continued to control play at the start of the 2nd half and lead 41 to 22 with over 16 minutes to go before the Golden Knight started to gain some momentum.  The Eagles went cold over the next 10 minutes as WGTC cut the score 43 to 40 with 6:28 remaining.

In a game of runs, Oxford buckled down on defense and WGTC scored just one point over the next four minutes. This allowed Oxford to stretch the lead to eight, 54-46 with 1:10 remaining on the clock.

The Golden Knight refused to go away without a fight as Dominique Lindsey hit a layup with 1:06 left to pull WGTC to within six, at 54-48. Oxford then hit one of two from the free throw line, which put them up by five. On West Georgia Tech's next possession the Knights missed two-consecutive shots but were able to grab the offensive rebound on both attempts and Tolbert hit a clutch three to cut it to four at 55-51, with 36 second left.
  
Oxford then hit one of two from the line to go up by five only to see Tolbert quickly hit a layup on the other end to pull the Golden Knights to within thee at 56-53 with 16 seconds left.
 
WGTC was forced to foul and Wesley Anderson and Ian Laurie combined to go 4 of 4 from the line in the final seconds to seal the win.

"The players were determined to win this championship, they showed a lot of heart and pride winning this title in front of our home fans," stated assistant head coach Tim Terry.
  
Wesley Anderson scored 17 points making 10 of 13 free throws and Jesse Wood added 12 to lead Oxford in scoring.

The Eagles next see action in the District 10/17/20 tournament in Hudson, North Carolina versus Caldwell Tech. 

Game time is set for Friday, Feb. 26, at 5:00pm.