"We wanted to make somebody else beat us," McDorman said. "We played an excellent ball game, defensive-wise."

Potucek led Oxford with 10 points and seven rebounds. Bryce Carter added nine points and seven rebounds.

South Haven's offense came to life in a big way midway through the third, and used a 14-2 run to end the quarter to take control. The Cardinals brought an uncanny energy to the court in the quarter, as they pulled down loose rebounds on the defensive end and had an easy time breaking to the basket.

Jordan Creed had back-to-back layups to close out the quarter. The first came on a nice feed from the top of the key from Derrick Spencer. Creed attacked the lane for his second layup with one second left for a 38-25 Cardinals lead heading into the fourth quarter.

"I told them the third quarter is the key," McDorman said. "If we can make a little run and get them out of our reach a little bit, we can be solid."

After being limited to four points at halftime, Creed came to life in the second half. He finished with a game-high 15 points and 10 rebounds.

"He missed a couple of easy ones in the first half," McDorman said. "I told him if he makes those shots, we're going to win by 10 or 12 points. He'd been struggling inside, and he finally made some shots. If he can make those, we're going to be tough."

South Haven used crisp passing in the second half to pull away. And it was the extra pass that made the difference.

"I told them, especially at halftime, 'one extra pass, fellas and we've got a wide-open layup,' " McDorman said. "We decided that we wanted do that and we had a lot of fun. We converted a lot of easy shots in the second half."

Oxford didn't go away, as it cut South Haven's lead to 10 on a Carter layup with 2:06 remaining. But the Cardinals scored the next five points to ice the win, including a Creed putback.

South Haven's hard work on the boards play an integral part in the win. Even with Oxford boasting a clear height advantage, as it had eight players at least 6-feet tall, the Cardinals used their athleticism to out-rebound Oxford 43-29.

"The other night at West Elk, I don't think we rebounded the ball very well," McDorman said. "(Oxford's) got some tall kids, but we battled the boards hard the last couple of days of practice. With our height, we should be hard to get rebounds over."

Jake Davidson snagged a game-high 11 rebounds, in addition to seven points. Nathen Yunker and Spencer added eight points apiece.

South Haven struggled mightily against Oxford's press in the first quarter. The Cardinals threw away passes and were called for traveling three times. They committed nine turnovers in the first quarter alone.

Oxford led twice in the first half. Potucek gave Oxford a 12-11 lead, its last of the game, 50 seconds into the second quarter.

But Oxford's poor free-throw shooting cost it a chance to get any closer, as it went 5 of 18. South Haven wasn't much better, as it went finished 11 of 21.

"We made the plays when we had to," McDorman said. "I was proud of the boys for their efforts."

Oxford 10 9 6 13 -- 38
South Haven 11 13 14 10 -- 48

Oxford -- Potucek 10, Carter 9, Hampton 6, Mayes 5, Reed 4, Brown 2, Burkes 2.
South Haven -- Creed 15, Yunker 8, Spencer 8, Davidson 7, Blaylock 6, Fitch 4.

Above: Oxford junior Nick Hampton (22) knocks the ball out of the hands of South Haven's Jordan Creed Tuesday night. Creed finished with a game-high 15 points to lead South Haven past Oxford 48-35 in the quarterfinals of the SBCL Tournament.