Losing streaks come and go all the time.
A team might lose two, three, four games in a row before their next victory.
But in the case of the Oxford Wildcats varsity boys basketball team, a win against Lake Orion on the basketball court has not happened since 1983.
The 27 year drought is over as the Wildcats defeated the Dragons 43-41 on Friday, Dec. 17 for not only their first win against Lake Orion in a quarter century, but for their first win of the year.
‘It’s early in the year, but when you beat your rival and you beat them on their home court, that is what you take it as,? Marfia said.
The game started off slow with both teams tied at five at the end of the first quarter.
Then junior Mark Hazelwood took over, scoring 13 of his team high 20 points in the second quarter to give the Wildcats the 22-17 lead at halftime.
Six of his points in the quarter came at the free-throw line, where he went six for six.
Oxford built a seven point lead with four minutes left, but Lake Orion had one last charge in them and cut the lead to one late in the game.
But Oxford stayed calm and closed out of the game and ended 27 years of losing to the Dragons.
‘We missed some free-throws that we definitely should have made, but we got a couple rebounds and tried to keep it alive (and) hit a couple of big shots,? Marfia said.
Junior Jacques Toussaint added 10 points for Oxford, senior Tyler Rose chipped in seven points and senior Chris Calvin had a team high 11 rebounds.
‘One thing that I was happy with was for the most part, our defense was pretty solid,? Marfia said. ‘It wasn’t perfect…but we can hang our hat on the fact that defensively we played solid for the most part.?
He added that his rebounding was an improvement over their first game against Okemos, where they got out rebounded by 26 rebounds.
Against Lake Orion, they out rebounded the Dragons 35-32.
‘I thought it was a great team effort, there were a lot of little things done out there by a lot of those kids that really made it solid for us,? Marfia added.
Oxford got a chance to end the year on a high note when they battled at home rival Lapeer West on Tuesday, Dec. 21.