The Oxford Academy Lady Patriots girls basketball team began Academy League play this past week with road contests versus Sage Hill of Newport Coast and Whitney High of Cerritos.
The Lady Patriots were tested in both games but persevered and came out with victories in both games to start out League play with a 2-0 record.
This stretches the Lady Patriots overall win streak to six games and gives them an overall record on the season of 12-3 r, which is good enough to be ranked #3 in Division 5A of the CIF Southern section.
Against Sage Hill, the Lady Patriots girls basketball team had never beaten the Lightning’ at their gymnasium.
The Lady patriots finally broke the streak by winning 63-56 as the game was a tough fought battle at the Peter Ueberroth Gymnasium located on the Sage Hill campus in Newport Coast.
The game initially looked to be a cake walk for Oxford as the team jumped out to a 14-1 lead with 9 of the points coming from Center Austyn Masuno.
But Sage Hill fought back and used an aggressive defense to create turnovers and go on 17-3 run to take an 18-17 lead midway through the 2nd quarter.
Oxford responded with a 9-0 run sparked by 8 points from Guard Angie Gagnon and the Lady Patriots went into halftime with a 30-24 lead.
In the 2nd half, Sage Hill went to a full court press to put additional pressure on the Lady Patriot ball handlers.
The tactic backfired on the Lightning as Oxford Guards Mylee Madrazo and Sophia Chan effectively broke the press and found ways to get the ball down low to Power Forward Ashleigh Perez.
Perez converted four layups catapulting Oxford to a commanding 47-33 lead to end the 3rd quarter.
However, Sage Hill wasn’t done as the Lightning came storming back behind sisters Kenna and Kerry Knollenberg who scored 11 and 10 points in the 4th quarter, respectively. Sage was able to whittle the Oxford lead down to 59-56 with 30 seconds remaining. But the Lady Patriots held on and hit some clutch late free throws to hold on to a 63—56 victory.
Oxford Academy was led by Austyn Masuno who finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds. Angie Gagnon had a career high game scoring 18 points and grabbed 7 rebounds.
Ashley Perez scored 14 points and all in the last 10 minutes of the game. Mylee Madrazo kick started the Lady Patriot offensive attack by dishing out a team high 6 assists.
On Friday night, the Lady Patriots went back on the road to take on their fiercest academic and athletic rival, Whitney High of Cerritos, who Oxford had not beaten in 5 years.
The gymnasium was packed with students and alumni who came back to celebrate Homecoming and it made for a lively environment for the home team Wildcats
To start the game, Oxford didn’t seem intimidated by the large opposing crowd or impacted by their recent lack of success versus Whitney as the Lady Patriots took a 16-4 lead with 2 minutes left in the 1st quarter.
Whitney struggled with Oxford’s full court press resulting in transition baskets.
But the Wildcats settled down and with the crowd support rallied back using double teams on defense to frustrate the Lady Patriots who didn’t score a FG for next 10 minutes.
In fact, Oxford who averages over 56 points a game managed to score only 2 points in the 2nd quarter.
Whitney was powered by Nicole Lee scoring 11 first half points and from 6 rebounds from freshman Justine Wu.
The Wildcats went on a 21- 2 run to finish with a 25-18 lead at halftime leaving the Lady Patriots stunned.
In the second half, Whitney’s opening possession resulted in a Justine Wu three point basket to stretch the Wildcats lead to 10 points.
Oxford continued to struggle to score and only managed 6 points in the 3rd quarter.
Wu converted another 3 point basket late in the quarter and Whitney maintained a commanding 31-24 advantage to end the 3rd quarter.
Oxford was in unfamiliar territory as this was only the 2nd time in 14 games this season that the Lady Patriots started the 4th quarter from behind.
Coach David Clifton made adjustments including installing a 4 guard line up to pressure Whitney’s perimeter game and to spread the floor on offense for the Lady Patriots.
The additional guard on the floor was junior Celine Tran who sparked the defense and the Oxford held Whitney to a single field goal in the 4th quarter.
The small line up also opened up the inside for freshman center Austyn Masuno who immediately went to work and scored 4 quick points.
Then on Oxford’s next possession, Angie Gagnon hit a 3 point shot to cap a 7-1 run and close the Wildcat lead to 32-31 with 4 minutes left.
Whitney managed to score 2 free throw to go back up 34-31, but Tran making the most of her minutes drilled a baseline jumper to cut the lead to 34-33.
This was followed by 4 more points from Masuno to cap an Oxford 6-2 run giving the Lady Patriots a 37-33 lead.
But Whitney wasn’t done yet as freshman Christine Hamakawa drilled a 3 pointer with 10 seconds left to cut the lead to 37-36.
In desperation the Wildcats had to foul Masuno who calmly converted a one and one and the bonus to close out the game and securing a 39-36 victory for the Lady Patriots.
Top scores in the game for Oxford were Austyn Masuno with 18 points, while Angie Gagnon 9 points by converting three 3 point baskets.
Whitney was led by 16 points from Nicole Lee while Justine Wu contributed 9 points.
Whitney has dominated the Academy League over the past 7 years winning 5 league titles and in four of those years the team was undefeated in league.
Despite the loss to Oxford, the Wildcats are still expected to be near the top of the league and can revenge their loss as the teams meet up again on Thursday Jan. 28 at the Oxford Gymnasium.
