The Washington girls basketball team defended their home court during the Rocky Clarke Invitational basketball tournament, picking up three wins and first place hardware along the way.
They defeated Casady (61-27), Elk City (59-24) and North Rock Creek (40-27).
It was the second edition of the tournament, which is named in honor of former Washington girls basketball coach Rocky Clarke.
Clarke coached girls basketball for 45 years and is the third most winningest coach in Oklahoma girls high school basketball.
Clarke coached at Claremore, Byng, Dale and Velma-Alma before coaching at Washington.
Casady
Washington opened the tournament against Casady on Thursday.
Kelby Beller led all scorers with 20 points.
Breanna Lindert scored 15 points and Preslee Johnson was also in double figures with 13.
Johnson opened the game with three treys in the first quarter and the Warriors had a 28-12 lead by halftime.
They never took their foot off the gas and allowed only 13 points the rest of the game.
Casady scored no more than eight points in any quarter.
Elk City
The strong defensive effort carried over Friday into the Warriors’ win over Elk City.
Washington held Elk City sophomore guard Abby Brown to eight points in the contest.
“Emersyn (Massey) contained No. 30 and did a really good job,” said Washington head coach Kale Simon. “She and Jayden Wells kept her at bay.”
Again, Washington held an opponent to under 10 points a quarter, only nine or fewer – including only three in the third quarter.
“I was really proud of them,” Simon said. “They played hard and continue to do the right thing. The game went from a 15-point lead to a 35 point lead in a hurry.”
Beller and Lindert led all scorers with 14 points each.
Addy Lanham and Shelbie Caveness each had 10 points in the contest.
North Rock Creek
The Warriors faced Class 4A’s No. 18 team in the finals Saturday night in a low-scoring game.
“We struggled to make a shot and to get into a flow on offense,” Simon said. “Credit Rock Creek for some of that.”
With the offense not firing as it normally does, the Warriors leaned on their stingy defense to capture the victory.
“I told them you may not always be good on offense but if you’re good on defense you can still get the win,” Simon said.
Lindert had a strong performance on the defensive side of the ball in the game.
“She played really good defense both Friday and Saturday,” Simon said. “She bailed us out on several occasions on Saturday.”
Caveness and Johnson led the Warriors in scoring with 14 and 12, respectively.
Purcell
Washington picked up a conference win against Purcell (59-41) on the Tuesday before the start of the tournament.
Washington was in control of the game virtually from start to finish.
They led by nine points after the first quarter and extended their lead to 15 by halftime.
Their defense kept the Dragons from crawling back out of the first-half hole.
Lindert had a game-high 23 points, followed by Beller with 15 and Johnson with 10.
With only three weeks worth of game remaining before the playoffs begin, Simon likes where his team is to this point.
“The things we can get better at are controllable,” he said. “And that’s a great position to be in.”
Washington is ranked No. 1 in Class 3A with a 17-1 record.
Boys
The Washington boys team picked up a pair of wins in the tournament.
They defeated Cache (64-47) and Casady (43-42) while dropping their semi-final game to eventual champion North Rock Creek (55-42), who are ranked No. 3 in Class 4A.
The win over No. 3 ranked Casady clinched third place for the Warriors.
Cache
Washington got off to a hot start on offense while holding Cache’s offense to fewer than 10 points both of the first two quarters.
Teagen Foster led the Warriors in scoring with 15 points, followed by senior Noah Ladlee with 10.
Ladlee has been playing well on offense as of late.
Purcell
Washington beat Purcell 75-69 in their conference game prior to the tournament.
The game was tightly played through three quarters.
Down four points going into the fourth quarter, the Warriors outscored the Dragons 28-8 in the final period.
Jeremiah Tontz led Washington’s scoring output with 22 points.
Mason Adams had 22 and Ladlee finished the night with 11 points.
The team is 8-9 this season.
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