Oxford Prep holds off Crossroads Christian
By Brandon White bwhite@hendersondispatch.com; 252-436-2840 Nov 14, 2021 Updated Nov 15, 2021
HENDERSON — The Oxford Prep women’s basketball team found itself in a tight battle with Crossroads Christian to open the season on Friday.
After leading by double digits at halftime, self-inflicted errors by the Griffins enabled Crossroads to make a late charge, but they successfully withstood the onslaught to return home with a 42-37 victory.
Head coach Jon Juntunen said that while not everything will function properly in a season opener, learning from the experience on Friday will be crucial towards building momentum later in the year.
“It wasn’t the prettiest performance, but it was the first game,” Juntunen said. “We’ve been switching a lot of things and trying some new stuff. Even though we had a lot of turnovers and careless mistakes [on Friday], I thought they responded to the changes well and I’m proud that they were able to pull that game out.”
When Crossroads began pressing Oxford Prep in the second half, Juntunen noticed that his players were startled by the adjustment. But he encouraged them to take care of the ball and slow down the pace of the game during a late timeout.
Although Oxford Prep was unable to pull away in the fourth quarter, it managed to counter every successful shot from the Colts and maintain a small advantage as time ticked off the clock.
Crossroads head coach Adrine Pettaway had hoped the defensive adjustments would be enough to overtake Oxford Prep, but she was proud of the way her players rebounded after they ended the first quarter down 9-0.
Like Juntunen, Pettaway wanted her players to be patient while moving the ball so they could create more scoring opportunities at their own pace. She believed that Crossroads could have earned an opening night victory had a few more shots gone in their favor.
Despite the loss, Pettaway considered Friday to be a solid first outing as Crossroads head coach and is confident that the program can be competitive and tally some wins following a few more improvements on offense and defense.
“I’m very satisfied with this first game,” Pettaway said. “Even though things didn’t begin the way I wanted them to, we finished strong. The execution needs to be better but they didn’t give up. We need to be better on defense and protect the ball more on offense, but everything looked better for us once we settled down.”
While Juntunen was happy to open the year 1-0, he said that Friday highlighted that Oxford Prep still needs to improve in many areas, particularly with tough in-conference competition like Vance Charter ahead on the schedule.
“We need to take care of the ball better,” Juntunen said. “I’ll give credit to Crossroads because they are a good team and competition within our conference is some of the strongest around. If you make those same mistakes against stronger teams, then you won’t come out on the winning end.”
Oxford Prep will try to improve its record to 2-0 on Tuesday against East Wake Academy. Crossroads is hosting Henderson Collegiate on the same day, with the goal of claiming its first win of the 2021-22 season.
By Brandon White bwhite@hendersondispatch.com; 252-436-2840 Nov 14, 2021 Updated Nov 15, 2021
HENDERSON — The Oxford Prep women’s basketball team found itself in a tight battle with Crossroads Christian to open the season on Friday.
After leading by double digits at halftime, self-inflicted errors by the Griffins enabled Crossroads to make a late charge, but they successfully withstood the onslaught to return home with a 42-37 victory.
Head coach Jon Juntunen said that while not everything will function properly in a season opener, learning from the experience on Friday will be crucial towards building momentum later in the year.
“It wasn’t the prettiest performance, but it was the first game,” Juntunen said. “We’ve been switching a lot of things and trying some new stuff. Even though we had a lot of turnovers and careless mistakes [on Friday], I thought they responded to the changes well and I’m proud that they were able to pull that game out.”
When Crossroads began pressing Oxford Prep in the second half, Juntunen noticed that his players were startled by the adjustment. But he encouraged them to take care of the ball and slow down the pace of the game during a late timeout.
Although Oxford Prep was unable to pull away in the fourth quarter, it managed to counter every successful shot from the Colts and maintain a small advantage as time ticked off the clock.
Crossroads head coach Adrine Pettaway had hoped the defensive adjustments would be enough to overtake Oxford Prep, but she was proud of the way her players rebounded after they ended the first quarter down 9-0.
Like Juntunen, Pettaway wanted her players to be patient while moving the ball so they could create more scoring opportunities at their own pace. She believed that Crossroads could have earned an opening night victory had a few more shots gone in their favor.
Despite the loss, Pettaway considered Friday to be a solid first outing as Crossroads head coach and is confident that the program can be competitive and tally some wins following a few more improvements on offense and defense.
“I’m very satisfied with this first game,” Pettaway said. “Even though things didn’t begin the way I wanted them to, we finished strong. The execution needs to be better but they didn’t give up. We need to be better on defense and protect the ball more on offense, but everything looked better for us once we settled down.”
While Juntunen was happy to open the year 1-0, he said that Friday highlighted that Oxford Prep still needs to improve in many areas, particularly with tough in-conference competition like Vance Charter ahead on the schedule.
“We need to take care of the ball better,” Juntunen said. “I’ll give credit to Crossroads because they are a good team and competition within our conference is some of the strongest around. If you make those same mistakes against stronger teams, then you won’t come out on the winning end.”
Oxford Prep will try to improve its record to 2-0 on Tuesday against East Wake Academy. Crossroads is hosting Henderson Collegiate on the same day, with the goal of claiming its first win of the 2021-22 season.
