Maple School’s 7/8 girls basketball team earned a berth in the Organization of Rural Elementary Schools State Tournament with a win over Friend 28-21.
Maple improved to 15-9 and will play its first round at state Thursday at noon at Earlsboro High School against Rocky Mountain.
Lifting three players into double-digit scoring, Okarche High School’s girls basketball team rallied from a first-period deficit to close out the regular season with a 65-47 win over Class 2A rival Cashion.
The Warriors, ranked second in Class A, will take a 21-2 record into the district playoffs. Okarche is riding a two-game win streak and victories in 13 of its last 14 games.
Cashion led 17-15 after one period, but Okarche retook the lead with a 17-10 run in the second period for a 32-27 halftime lead.
Redlands Community College women’s basketball team snapped a two-game losing streak with a 62-45 home win over Connors State College.
The victory gave Redlands the regular-season sweep over the Cowboys as Jay Niehues’ team improved to 11-7 on the year and 5-5 in the NJCAA Region 2 standings.
The Cougars remain sixth in the standings but move to within half a game of fifth place.
Redlands was 22-of-61 from the field for 36 percent, including six 3-pointers off 32 percent shooting. The Cougars did struggle at the free-throw line with a 12-of-21 (57 percent) effort.
Squandering a small lead midway through the first half, Redlands Community College men’s basketball team kicked off February on a sour note with an 83-74 loss to Connors State College.
The nine-point home loss was the second in a row for the Cougars, who fell to 12-12 on the season and 4-6 in the NJCAA Region 2 standings.
Redlands remains in seventh place in the league.
The Cougars were 26-of-53 from the floor for 43 percent, including a 7-of-20 effort (35 percent) from behind the 3-point arc. Redlands was 15-of-16 from the free-throw line for 94 percent.
EHS’ game at Noble last week was rescheduled for Feb. 17 due to winter weather.
EHS was to host Lawton MacArthur (Monday) and Guthrie (Tuesday) before traveling to Carl Albert on Friday.
Trading second-half scoring blitzes, Calumet High School’s boys basketball team outscored Union City 20-19 in the fourth period to hang on to defeat its cross-county rival 68-63.
The late-season meeting was for third place in the 2022 Washita Valley Conference Shootout. Calumet, ranked sixth in Class A, swept the season series with the Tigers after a 40-point win back in November.
The Chieftains head into the playoffs with a 19-6 record.
In a rather stunning outcome, Union City High School’s girls basketball team dropped a 35-29 decision to Gracemont in the fifth-place game of the 2022 Washita Valley Conference Shootout, hosted by Southwestern Oklahoma State University.
The score was a head-turner considering Union City had defeated the Lions by 25 points in the regular-season conference meeting and was riding a two-game win streak into the shootout.
Gracemont, meanwhile, had won only three games this season and only once since the turn of the new year.
Prior to the game with Kingfisher, El Reno High School girls basketball coach Jennifer Douglas told her players they needed to win the next four games to assure themselves a home regional.
The Indians are one step away from that goal, using a 23-11 run in the fourth quarter to pull away from No.7 Piedmont for a 49-35 victory – the team’s third in a row.
Teams in the upper classifications statewide are to report win-loss records on Monday to be used for bracketing for the upcoming playoffs.
Schools were separated into the East/West split in late January.
Using both its small and large lineups in the second half, El Reno High School’s boys basketball team held off two comeback attempts by No.11 Piedmont to complete the season sweep of the Wildcats.
The Indians scored six of the game’s final eight points to pull away for a 64-52 victory in which the Indians never trailed their cross-county rival.
El Reno, which jumped a spot to No.7 among the 16 teams on the West side of the state, improved to 9-8 on the season with the win. The Indians are now 4-2 in Suburban Conference standings.
From the small town of Union City where they first started their playing careers, all the way to state and national Hall of Fame inductions, brothers Lloyd and Wendell Simmons are considered baseball royalty in Oklahoma.
Now a third Union City legend, though infused later in life as a coach, has joined the brothers as elite players to have donned a University of Central Oklahoma jersey.
