Lake Orion holds off Oxford for district win
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
ROCHESTER HILLS — One long drought will end Friday night.
Lake Orion, which has not won a district championship in boys basketball since 1984, will play for a district championship thanks to a 64-57 victory Wednesday over rival Oxford in a Class A district semifinal at Rochester Adams.
The Dragons’ opponent: A date with a Rochester team that has not won a district trophy since 1988.
“I don’t really care who we play because that team will present us some problems,” admitted Lake Orion coach Tom Risi. “We just need to play our game and hope that we can win a district trophy on Friday night. I know it’s been a long time for our program.”
Lake Orion (13-9) possess the area’s biggest front line with the likes of 6-foot-8 senior center Brad Watterworth, 6-6 forward Chaz Miller, 6-5 sophomore forward John McCarty and 6-4 junior center Roman Kuster. The Dragons went to thier deep frontcourt against Oxford and the Wildcats had a hard time matching up.
Lake Orion finished the night 19-for-36 from the floor and 25-for-35 from the foul line. The Dragons only attempted two three-pointers and nailed one of them.
McCarty finished with 21 points, six rebounds and three assists, Miller twined 15 points and Watterworth picked up 11 points, six boards and five blocks for the Dragons.
UP FOR TWO: Lake Orion's John McCarty puts up this jumper during the Dragons' 64-57 Class A district semifinal win Wednesday over Oxford. Staff Photo | Dan Stickradt
“Our inside game in definitely our strength,” said Risi. “We know we have a lot of size and we try to use it to our advantage the best we can. But we’re still very young. We lose Watterworth off our front court, but the other guys will all be back next year. Our guards are still young. We used one senior, plus a couple of sophomores and juniors tonight in our backcourt. We’re still learning. We do make mistakes, but we have come a long ways since we were 3-18 last season.”
Lake Orion continued to go inside throughout the game. After Oxford held a 14-12 lead after the first quarter, Lake Orion went on a18-7 run in the second quarter for a 30-21 halftime lead.
The Dragons continued to pull away in the third quarter with a 14-9 spurt, which built a 44-30 advantage entering the fourth quarter.
Lake Orion opene4d the fourth with a 10-4 run for its biggest lead at 54-34 with 3:55 to play before Oxford began to mount a comeback.
Behind the inspired play by senior guard Mark Hazelwood, the Wildcats closed with a 23-10 run over the final 3:30, but could not complete the comeback.
Hazelwood bowed out with a game-high 25 points, going 11-for-11 from the foul line, for Oxford. Junior forward James Patrick added eight points and senior forward Javante Evans supplied six points and six rebounds for the Wildcats.
Oxford (14-7) was missing its second leading scorer, Michael Kitchner, who was held out for undisclosed reasons. Kitchner’s outside shooting was missed, and Oxford could not match up on the interior.
“I am proud of the way the guys that we had on the floor tonight played,” said Oxford coach Paul Marfia. “They played hard. You can only go with the guys that are here and they left it all on the floor. They could have given up when we were down 20, but they did a great job coming back in the last five minutes. We just ran out of time.”
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