The Oxford Wildcats triumphed over Brandon 44-41 in a surprising late season upset.
Oxford went into the Friday night game short captain and lead scorer Ryan Stull, who was out sick, and with a double-digit loss to Brandon earlier in the season. Head Coach Steve Laidlaw said he knew the team was going to have to play their best defensive game of the year to survive.
“Ryan has been averaging 22 points a game in the past few weeks, so we knew we couldn’t go in and make up that many points with one guy,” said Laidlaw. “We had to win with our defensive pressure, and we had to score points off that defense.”
And the Cats proved they could do just that. The first half of the night Oxford pushed to keep the score down, with the Wildcats only scoring 11 points total over the two periods and Brandon not shooting much more.
However, the second half of the game took off. The Wildcats hit 19 points in the third period alone, and then another 14 in the fourth.
“We played a really good defensive game,” said Coach Steve Laidlaw. “We had a pretty big offensive drive right at the end.”
The Cats pulled out all the stops with Casey Mick leading the way. The senior player held Brandon’s top scorer to nine points for the night, while working in his own six points and four rebounds. The rest of the team took the opening and spread the points: Bryan Mattack had 12 points, going 8 for 10 on the line, and five assists; Joe Fedorinchik had nine points, seven of them in the third period; and Dave Wendt had 10 points.
Oxford went against the best team in the league, Holly, on Tuesday and is preparing to wrap up the season against the second best, the Lapeer East Eagles, on Friday. Laidlaw was uncertain whether Ryan Stull would be back for either game.
“We’re going to have to use great defense again,” said Laidlaw. “Things should go smoother now that we’ve made the transition of playing without Ryan. We’re really going to need Joe Fedorinchik and Brad Dugan to have good games and step up their scoring.”