That Keiton Page — he’s not half bad
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@Oklahoman.com
Well, it was just another ho hum night for Pawnee’s favorite son, Keiton Page. You know, the usual, 61 points, 11-16 from downtown, beating a sixth-ranked team by 31 points. It doesn’t get more pedestrian than that.
Even if sarcasm doesn’t connect with the written word, you get the point. Keiton was out of his mind Tuesday night in a 93-62 thumping of Class A No. 6 Frontier.
Talking with both Keiton and his father/coach, David, they said the key to the game was early. Pawnee raced off to a 24-4 start and never looked back. Using a press, the Black Bears were able to get a lot of turnovers and convert them into easy buckets.
And then the fun really started. Keiton made five consecutive 3-pointers at one point as Pawnee was in cruise control with a 50-27 lead at halftime.
I’m sure there were several reasons for the big night, but one of them is rather simple: Frontier decided to play Keiton and Pawnee man-to-man.
Say wha? Jenks is the only other team to use such a strategy and on that night, Page was “limited” to 40 points.
The official stat line for the Oklahoma State commit: 24-32 FG, 13-16 from two-point range, 11-16 from downtown, six steals, five assists, one turnover, 61 points.Keiton tallied 17 in the first, 18 in the second. He followed that with 21 in the third and closed out with five in the fourth. He was taken out of the game with 4:50 left.
Talking with David, it was easy to hear how proud he was of his son. I asked him how hard is it on a night like that to stay a coach instead of being a beaming papa. David was honest and said it was difficult but did say the two have a special bond and are able to separate the coach/player and father/son relationships.
Pawnee is quite busy, starting with a road trip to Pawhuska on Thursday. Homecoming is Friday against Newkirk, followed by a Monday bout with Luther. Hmm, three games, no way Keiton gets 3,000, right? At 2,756 points, he would need to average more than 80 per contest in the next week. So it’s a pipe dream, but give it another week, and we will be talking about the next 3,000-point club member.
The win moved Pawnee to 6-2 but look at the schedule: two games with Frontier, Heritage Hall (No. 4 in 3A), Verdigris (No. 2 in 3A), Stringtown (No. 1 in B) and Jenks (No. 2 in 6A). There’s something to be said about going out and playing the best.
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