When the Oakville Senior High School boys’ basketball team was just 2-7 at the end of 2007, not many people — if any — considered the Tigers a playoff contender.

But 19 games later, Oakville (15-13, 5-3 Suburban West) had won the Class 5 District 8 Tournament and faced its toughest opponent of the year — McCluer North — in the Missouri Class 5 state sectional.

The Tigers battled the Stars throughout most of the Feb. 27 game, but McCluer North used a 22-11 run in the second quarter to defeat Oakville 72-55.

“McCluer North is experienced, athletic and strong. and we knew we were going to have our hands full,” Oakville head coach Nick Traxler said. “I felt like we never quit and we never backed down from them.”

Despite out rebounding McCluer North 28-22, the one area that the Tigers glaringly struggled at was the free-throw line.

Oakville hit just five of 12 — 41.7 percent — shots from the charity stripe, an issue that Traxler wants to address in the off-season.

“Free throws are one of our demons that we need to work on in the off-season,” Traxler said. “I believe that it’s something we need to spend a lot of time on in the off-season.”

Oakville’s John Alexander led all scorers with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Alexander also racked up three assists and one blocked shot in the loss.

He finished the season with 15.4 points and 10.6 rebounds per game while racking up 39 assists, 33 steals and 25 blocked shots.

“He’s such a gamer,” Traxler said of Alexander. “He’s a fantastic young man that we’re really going to miss. I know that wherever he goes, he’ll be successful.”

Oakville’s Keith Pickens also scored in double figures with 10 points and four re-bounds.

He recorded one steal and four blocked shots. Pickens finished out the year with 13.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game while leading the Tigers with 41 steals and 62 blocked shots.

“I think that Keith’s maturing into a very nice basketball player,” Traxler said. “He’s really been coming into his own here late in the season.”

With Alexander and Jeremy Booker being the only seniors on this year’s roster, the Tigers are slated to return 12 players for the 2008-2009 season.

“John and Jeremy are going to be really hard to replace,” Traxler said. “As soon as the McCluer North game ended, next season started.”