You never know where Mike James is going to show up on the basketball court. It could be on the perimeter one night and in the post the next.
James, a 6-foot-6, 200-pound senior workhorse, leads top-ranked Oak Ridge (22-2) into a Class 7A Region 2 championship game on Friday night at home against Sarasota Riverview (22-6). The winner will advance to next week’s state tournament to play a semifinal against the Region 1 champ, either Dr. Phillips (21-3) or Sanford Seminole (16-7), on Friday, March 5, at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland.
“All season we’ve been knowing we’ve got unfinished business,” James said – referring to the Pioneers’ painful overtime loss in a final four game against eventual state champion Miramar.