All in the Family as Royal Oak Beats Oxford, 53-47

It was Parents Night on Thursday at and the varsity boys made their folks proud with a 53-47 conference win over Oxford High School.

The victory propped up the boys' overall record to 8-9 and 7-5 in conference play. Two more league games next week, at Andover and Farmington, round out the regular season before district play begins at Groves against Andover on March 8.

Oxford hit the scoreboard first Thursday night and the lead changed hands three times with three ties before senior Shane Carmen buried a 3-pointer with three minutes left in the first quarter to give Royal Oak the lead, 11-8, and the Ravens held it until the fourth quarter.

Royal Oak Head Coach Gary Sharpe has his team moving in the right direction at the right time. "We've lost a couple of league losses in a row and with districts coming up we want to finish on a high note, as high as we can in the standings," Sharpe said. "We've been building our family and feeding off that family love. We regrouped and played pretty well."

According to Sharpe, the team's unselfish play kept them in control of the game. "Love is pain, you've got to do the hard things," he said. "I thought we played pretty well tonight. There was a lot of hustle and we got back to some things that had been missing in the last few games."

Holding a four-point lead after the first quarter, a six-point run and some cold shooting by Oxford gave Royal Oak an eight-point advantage at halftime. Oxford chipped away in the third and got within two points but Royal Oak put the lead back at four after the third. A frantic fourth quarter kept the fans in the gym. Oxford tied the game 34-34 with 7:30 left in the quarter, but Royal Oak senior Terrell Nickerson hit a 3-pointer to put the Ravens back in the driver seat.

The Ravens were 13-17 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter and 20-24 overall for 83 percent. The Ravens were out-rebounded 31-27, but key blocked shots by senior center Dave Wagner and Nickerson gave the team confidence and the boost needed to put away Oxford.

Carmen and the rest of the Ravens understood Oxford would be a test for the team.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game," Carmen said. "And we knew we had to box out No. 44 (Chris Calvin). We knew they had two tough guys inside."

Calvin led Oxford with 12 points along with Mark Hazelwood, but no other visiting player was in double figures. Wagner led all scorers with 17 points while adding seven rebounds. Junior Martel Porter had a double-double — 10 points and 10 rebounds – while Nickerson added 11 points. The team had 13 assists in the contest as well.

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