Winning is just a little bit easier when you work as a team to rack up eight more assists than your opponent, a fact the Southside Panthers proved on Saturday. They walked away with a 56-46 victory over Oxford. Given Southside's advantage in MaxPreps' Alabama basketball rankings (they are ranked 47th, while Oxford is ranked 127th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Southside had a senior duo take command as Madison Shaw scored 19 points along with 4 steals and Grace Anne rose dropped a double-double on 13 points and 10 rebounds. That makes it two consecutive games in which Shaw has scored at least 25% of Southside's points. Another player making a difference was Laylah Davis, who scored 13 points.
Despite the loss, Oxford still got an impressive performance from Xaionna Whitfield, who scored 25 points along with 6 steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Ava Thomas, who scored 7 points.
Southside is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven contests, which provided a nice bump to their 8-2 record this season. As for Oxford, they now have a losing record at 4-5.
Southside will look to defend their home court on Tuesday against Sardis. Sardis is coming into the contest hot, having won their last seven games. Oxford's road trip will continue as they head out to face Fort Payne at 6:00 p.m. on December 12th. Fort Payne will be looking to keep their three-game home win streak alive.
