A big night on the perimeter by freshman shooter Tyler Phillips kept the Georgia Northwestern Bobcats within striking distance of visiting Oxford College for most of the day on Saturday. But the balanced scoring of the Eagles were ultimately too much for the home team to overcome in an 87-70 loss at the Rossville Athletic Center.
The two former NJCAA Region XVII members exchanged the lead five times in the game's first 12 minutes. However, Oxford's Ryan Kwong would connect on two straight 3-pointers to put his team in the lead and the Eagles would remain there the rest of the game, although they were never able to truly pull away.
Kwong, who finished the game with 16 points, went 4-of-6 from behind the arc in the opening 20 minutes as Oxford (10-10) built a 45-31 lead at the break.
Georgia Northwestern (3-14) would cut the Eagles' lead down to 10 points twice in the second half, the final time at 68-58 with just over seven minutes to play, but the hosts would get no closer.
Robert Wainio matched Kwong with 16 points. Eric Lee had 15 points and Seb Mosso went for 11 to help his team.
Phillips went 7-of-10 from long range as the ex-Coahulla Creek Colt doubled his season average (14.4 points per game) with a new-season and career-high of 29. Jay Wideman continued his impressive run of recent games, pouring in 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, while J.T. Langford had 11 points.
The Bobcats will be back in action this Tuesday with a 7 p.m. home game against the Covenant College JV squad. The two teams met earlier this season with the Scots holding serve at home with an 80-71 victory.