Oxbridge advances to region final
Stanley ices win as ThunderWolves top Cardinal Newman.
WEST PALM BEACH — Aaliyah Stanley had a chance to seal the game and send her team to the Class 5A regional finals. All she had to do was hit a couple of free throws, and Oxbridge Academy’s victory would all but be assured.
Sent to the line once with her ThunderWolves leading Cardinal Newman by a point with less than a minute remaining, she hit one of t wo shots. After being fouled again, she hit another free throw to seal Oxbridge’s 58-54 regional semifinal victory Tuesday.
“I had to hit free throws,” Stanley said. “It’s kind of hard to hit free throws at the end of the game, when you need it.”
Stanley’s game-clinching points were just the last two in a 20-point game for the sophomore guard. Fellow sophomore guard Alexa Zaph added 18.
“I think that we probably have two of the best guards in the state,” Oxbridge coach Tracy Wolfe said. “We can really lean on them, we trust them with the ball and we never feel out of it because we know they can pick it up for us anytime.”
Stanley and Zaph got hot at the right time Tuesday.
Newman had dominated the third quarter, with star guard Milan Morris scoring 13 of her 25 points in the quarter. Morris and the Crusaders turned a four-point halftime deficit into a seven-point lead by the time the quarter ended. But Stanley and Zaph scored all the points in an 8-0 ThunderWolves run to start the final quarter, and Oxbridge never trailed again.
“We’re a fourth-quarter team,” Zaph said. “We step up when we need to.”
The ThunderWolves will continue their bid for a state berth Friday night against Tampa Catholic (27-2), which routed Tampa-Brooks-DeBartolo 55-20 on Tuesday night.
“We can go very far,” Stanley said.
Added Zaph: “We’re going all the way.”