Oak Ridge senior forward Javien Johnson (11) is pictured above during a 78-61 win at Powell on Dec. 8, 2015. Johnson led the Wildcats with 18 points during a 71-43 win at Campbell County on Friday, Feb. 12, 2016, in the last regular-season district game. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
For the first time, the Oak Ridge Wildcats and Lady Wildcats basketball teams have both finished the regular season undefeated in the district.
The closest the two teams have ever come to that feat was in 1999-2000, when the girls went undefeated but the boys lost to Campbell County in the Cougars’ last win over Oak Ridge, said broadcaster David Clary of Prepradio.com.
Clary said the Oak Ridge girls went five straight seasons without losing a regular-season district game between 1985-1990.
This year’s two Oak Ridge teams ended their regular-season district games on Friday at Campbell County.
The girls (22-3, 16-0 District 3-AAA) won the regular-season district championship with a come-from-behind 47-32 win over the Lady Cougars. The only two district losses for the Lady Cougars (23-5, 14-2) this year have been to Oak Ridge.
The boys (28-2, 16-0) finished with a 71-43 blowout at Campbell County (14-14, 5-11).
The Wildcats had already won the regular-season district championship in an 86-60 win over Karns at home on Friday, February 5.
Still, as Oak Ridge Coach Aaron Green has pointed out, no one gives out any trophies for the regular-season district championship.
Like the girls, the boys enter next week’s district tournament as the top seed and automatically get to play in the Region 2 tournament.
Both teams are expected to have challenging games tonight (Saturday, February 13), when they take on Fulton at Wildcat Arena. The girls game starts at 6 p.m., and the boys game begins at 7:30. The Fulton boys are currently ranked number two in Class AA, while the Oak Ridge boys are currently ranked number eight in Class AAA.
Wildcats senior forward Javien Johnson, who scored the 700th point of his career, led Oak Ridge with a game-high 18 points at Campbell County on Friday. Junior guards E.J. Bush and Tee Higgins both scored eight.
The Wildcats also had a blowout on Wednesday at Halls, where they beat the Red Devils 101-43. Every Wildcat scored. It was the first time Oak Ridge topped 100 points since 2004, according to Clary.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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