Girls third, boys fifth in HOOT

Bethany upset Anadarko’s girls in the finals of the Heart of Oklahoma Tournament last Saturday night, 64-32 snapping a streak of 13 straight titles for the Lady Warriors.

Anadarko’s boys defeated Byng 45-39 for the championship  on the boys side.

Purcell’s girls finished third knocking off Elgin 61-51 in the game on Saturday. The Dragons topped Dickson 65-21 to open the tournament and faced Anadarko in the semifinals.

Purcell built a 23-18 lead at halftime only to have it washed away with the Lady Warriors out-scoring the Dragons 23-11 in the third period to win 46-42.

That set up the third place game with Elgin.

Jenna Avery’s 13 points led all scorers while Alyssa Thompson and Hannah Whitaker were right on her heels with a dozen each in the Dickson game.

“We were excited to play in the tournament after coming off our worst performance of the season,” head coach Toney Cooper said. “Our girls jumped on them early and never let up. We got great production off our bench with several girls providing points and rebounds. It was a great bounce game for us.”

Avery, Haven Buchanan, Hadleigh Harp and Bri Wren all had seven points to lead the offense against Anadarko.

“They were a familiar team for us, a rematch of last year’s HOOT final,” Cooper said. “We were able to get out in transition and really control the pace of the game in the first half. The second half was reversed with them controlling the pace using their size and getting easy buckets.”

The Dragons added fuel to the fire committing 15 turnovers.

“But our girls came out ready to play and were not at all intimidated by their size or ranking. It’s rare to take a loss and walk away feeling good about your team, but this game showed the heart of our team,” Cooper said. “Our kids competed at such a high level from the opening tip until the buzzer sounded. We are trying to make the jump from good to great and this was a big step in that direction.”

Cooper said Buchanan and Avery carried the load offensively but the Dragons got a big boost off the bench with the play of Wren and Thompson.

“Tinley Winters battled three bits to own the boards while Kenna Esparza had key assists and steals that kept us in the game. I’m extremely proud of our team.”

The Dragons had three girls in double figures against Elgin led by Haven Buchanan’s game-high 16 points. Right on her heels was Avery with 15. Winters finished with 10.

Buchanan scored all her points in the second half including nine in the fourth period. Avery scored seven on her total points in the final stanza when the Dragons pulled away with a 24-17 quarter.

“Coming off a tough game against Anadarko I was not sure how my our girls had left in the tank,” Cooper said. “We wanted to finish the tournament on a successful note and did just that. We needed a spark in that game and Haven was just that and more.

“She had several steals, rebounds and assists. Her growth as a player has been special to watch,”the coach said. “It was an extremely competitive game and we were fortunate to come away with the win.”

The flu bug flew through Purcell High School so key players were missing and others played while fighting illness.

“Overall, I saw such growth in our team in this tournament,” Cooper said. “The way our team rallied, focused and competed made this one of the best basketball experiences for me as a coach.”

Washington jumped on to a 30-15 first half lead on the Cooper’s Dragons January 16 and cruised to a 59-41 victory.

Boys

Roger Raper’s Dragons also won two of three games in the tournament.

After stubbing their toe against Byng in the opener, a 57-54 loss, the Dragons came back to post wins over the OKC Knights, 73-46 and Elgin for fifth place, 57-52.

Kobe Freeman continued to scorch the nylons in the three-game set scoring 106 points in the tournament including 50 against the OCK Knights on Friday afternoon.

The school record is 51 points by Cornell Haley against Newcastle in the 1990-91 season.

Freeman missed four shots down the stretch that could have broken the 33-year-old record.

Freeman led all scorers with 30 in the fifth place victory over Elgin.

Freeman, who had 26 in the Byng game was joined in double figures by Jaime Resendiz with 11 and Kylen DeFreeze with 10.

“I was very proud of our team at the HOOT,” Raper said. “Being able to win two games in a very tough tournament was extremely positive. We played well in all three games but just had a 90 second unraveling in the Byng game that made the difference.

“I thought we had very aggressive play not only from Kobe but from everyone,” the coach said.

“Senior Kylen DeFreeze and sophomore Jaime Resendiz had very tough matchups against 6’10” and 6’7” players but never backed down and played very well.”

Raper labeled Freeman’s 50 point game against Oklahoma City as “incredible.”

“I was so proud of our team being completely unselfish in helping Kobe achieve such a great accomplishment.

“The flu has hit our team and we were missing a starter and the first two subs in the Elgin game.

“After being down five at halftime we were able to drive their zone and battle back for the victory.

“Kylen DeFreeze was a huge  part of our win scoring all 15 of his points in the second half,” Raper said.

“We defended much better in the second half. We are back to .500 at 8-8 and hope we can now defeat this flu from going through the whole team.”

Washington pinned a 75-69 loss on Purcell at The Reimer Center January 16 despite double digit scoring from DeFreeze, Freeman and Resendiz.

Dragon notes:

Cornell Haley’s record of 51 points in a game was in jeopardy when Kobe Freeman got to 50 with several shots left in the OKC Knights game.

John McCurdy broke Lester Lane’s record of 43 against Pauls Valley in the 1950-51 season.

McCurdy poured in 45 against Lexington in the 1989-90 season.

Mike Edge scored 42 against Sulphur and 41 against Jones in back-to-back games in the 1981-82 season.

Roger Raper was tied with Jim Conger for third in all-time wins as Purcell’s coach at 120 but after the weekend he moved into third place alone with 122 wins behind only Boney Matthews and Lee Reimer.