Southeast Missourian Player of the Week: Garret Light

Garret Light and the Oak Ridge boys basketball team won three games on the varsity level during his freshman year.

It would have been hard to predict then that Light would be helping to lead his team to a 3-0 record and the Woodland Invitational tournament championship to begin the season just three years later, but that is precisely what the senior did last week.

"The team has totally turned around since my freshman year," Light said after his team's 67-55 victory over the Meadow Heights Panthers in the championship game.

"Our players work a lot harder in practice and a lot harder in the offseason than they used to," he said.

After scoring 14 points in the first round and 17 in the semifinals, Light led Oak Ridge with 24 points in the championship game.

The victory wasn't technically an upset since the Blue Jays entered the tournament as the top seed, something they had never done before in the 40-year history of the tournament, but it was quite a statement on just how far Light and Oak Ridge basketball have come.