Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Oxbridge takes 2nd straight title
LAKELAND — Crown them again.
In its third straight trip to Lakeland and second straight title game, Oxbridge Academy took down Orlando Lake Highland Prep — their opponent in last year’s championship bout — 71-65 at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland to claim the ThunderWolves’ second consecutive Class 5A girls basketball championship.
“We have the legacy of if we don’t have that 30-point lead, sometimes we lose it, or we can’t win close games,” senior Aaliyah Stanley said. “I felt like we proved ourselves.”
The ThunderWolves won last year’s match up with Lake Highland Prep by 16 points, but this year’s game was closer. The Highlanders held the lead entering the second quarter and prevented an Oxbridge rout by erasing an 8-0 ThunderWolves run with a 10-2 secondquarter run of their own.
“They prepared to play us, definitely,” Stanley said. “They came in with a different mentality.”
The two teams were neck-and-neck most of the game. But Stanley had maybe the best performance of her career on Thursday, scoring a gamehigh 32 points while bringing down five rebounds. The senior Eastern Michigan signee scored 24 of her points in the second half, and her performance proved to be the difference.
“When I hit that little step-back three and it went in, yeah, I felt like … the basket was big,” Stanley said.
Oxbridge coach Tracy Wolfe added: “With Aaliyah, once she hits that shot, you just know. I knew from that point that we were good.”
Led by Stanley, Oxbridge got out to a seven-point lead by the end of the third quarter and built it into a double-digit lead in the fourth. Alexa Zaph and Nashani Gilbert-Taylor knocked down six free throws at the end of the game to secure the win.
The victory is the last high school game for the group of seven Oxbridge seniors, including Stanley, Vanderbilt signee Kaylon Smith and FAU signee Zaph.
“This has been such a special group of seniors,” Wolfe said. “They came in with me and they really built this program. I’m so excited for their futures, but on a selfish note, so sad to let go.”
The ThunderWolves will return one starter — junior Nashani GilbertTaylor, who had 12 points and nine rebounds Thursday — for next season.
“There’s no reason why this team can’t still be successful,” Wolfe said. “However, this is a special group and they’ve left their legacy at Oxbridge. I think when you talk about Oxbridge basketball forever, this is the group of people that we’re all going to always talk about that built that program.”