And then that happened…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
It was real tough to try to duplicate the atmosphere of the Titan Classic on Saturday after one of the most memorable days of basketball for me (personally) on Friday.
Three overtime games, eight total OTs and one monumental struggle between two of the strongest powers in girls basketball today.
The semifinal game between the second-ranked (3A) Millwood and No. 1 Union (6A) girls was supposed to tip at 8:30 on Friday. Because of all the shenanigans in the boys’ games, it was closer to 10 p.m. than anything else.
But the teams were not deterred by this.
Millwood’s Tijiasha Reid and Marisha Wallace led the charge early, scoring 14 of the team’s 22 points in the first half. I remember Wallace last year as a freshman being a little unsure of herself.
As sophomore, she’s grown in her ability to make the big play.
For Tulsa Union, it was all Roni Jefferson in the first half. She scored 12 of her 16 as Union held a narrow 25-22 lead at halftime.
The third quarter belonged to No. 20 on both sides. For Millwood, it was more solid work from Wallace while Union’s Destinee Frierson had seven of the team’s nine points as Union led 34-31 heading into the final eight minutes.
Or so we thought.
Reid hit her final three of the game to close the gap to 37-36, and JohVonna Mitchell appeared to have maybe hit the game-winner with 1:00 at 40-39.
Frierson was fouled with 42. 5 seconds left and made 1-of-2 to tie it up.
To OT we go.
The first OT was an anomaly. After a Millwood miss, Frierson held the ball on her hip for more than three minutes straight. Shea Bowden never came out to defend her, so Frierson just held it (a writer’s dream to see the clock move like that).
And with Union up 42-40, Millwood sophomore Dayla Threatt made her only basket of the game to tie it up with under a minute to go.
To double OT we go.
Millwood twice had a two-point lead, but Union wasn’t going away. So we’re entering the third overtime knotted at 46. And nobody scores in this extra session.
It’s getting near 11:30 at night now. I’m just kinda watching the game with fellow prep writer Justin Harper. Not really watching as a writer, more as a fan thus you’re getting these incomplete thoughts about everything.
In the fourth overtime, Wallace ties the game up at 49 when the officials start to come into the game. Threatt drives to the hole and scores. No, charging is called with 31.8 left. Personal thought, yeah, pretty good call.
Then comes the scramble at the end. Frierson is trying to force her way through, loses the ball. Millwood’s Mitchell tries to save it from going out of bounds (about 4 seconds left now). She does, loose ball, about three girls from each team around the ball. Frierson gets bumped and picks it up with her back to the basket near the wing at the three-point line. Foul called with 1.1 left.
She misses the first. What? The senior leader got a little tense. I lean over to Justin and ask “do you call timeout to ice her?” I say yes. Justin says no.
Millwood does. Justin’s logic being Frierson looked frazzled after missing that and was still a little nervous. After the timeout, she won’t feel any more pressure than what she just went through.
Sure enough, Justin was right. See, that’s why he’s the girls writer, and I’m just the roving dude. Frierson makes the attempt and Millwood has no timeouts. Can’t design a play. Inbounds pass doesn’t go very far, game over. 50-49, 4OT for Union.
You can go years and not see a four-overtime game. Or see an OT period where a player nearly runs out the whole clock. Or an OT session where both teams don’t score.
When it came to the third and fourth OT, I think people were done complaining about the long night. People were just enjoying it.
Down at the ends of the court were Carl Albert coaches Jay Price and Gary Rose, just sitting down with kids and watching it. I was talking to complete strangers in the crowd about the game.
That game is all that is right with high school basketball. I may not see another one like that anytime soon but you combine that with the boys championship final with MWC beating Booker T. in overtime, well, I had my fill.
Consider me done…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
That’s it. It is the end for me. I won’t see better basketball this year than I did in my two days at the Titan Classic at Carl Albert.
Whether it was Del City making a statement against Union (though a tired squad) or Midwest City getting a little of that swagger back, pretty fun way to spend a weekend.
Could have been home by 11 p.m., but technical difficulties have pushed me to the midnight hour.
I thoroughly watched five games, so…Here. We. Go.
Carl Albert 61, Millwood 53 (Boys): A consolation championship that would have worked fine as a championship at just about any other tournament, IMO.
This day belonged to Harrison Dupont. After being held in check Friday, Dupont went off today with 26.
Head coach Jay Price made a statement by not starting a couple of the guys for missing their shoot around time today.
I figured it would be like a minute or two. No, Price didn’t let those boys play the entire first quarter.
One person who did play was Trevante Porter. He brings energy to the team. I liken him to Joe Stoner from last year’s team in terms of energy. They’re going to give you everything they got. Scratch, claw for everything.
Millwood’s no slouch, though. The Falcons will be back.
Carl Albert 51, Millwood 40 (Girls): Titans make it 2-for-2 against the Falcons. There should be a huge asterisk on this one as Millwood played until 11:40 p.m. Friday and had to play this one at 4:00.
Dems the breaks.
Shea Bowden and JohVonna Mitchell looked like the only two Millwood girls with any pep in their step. And once Bowden got in foul trouble, knew it wasn’t good.
However, maybe the shooting of CA’s Madison Tollison would have carried the day anyway. She made six 3’s and was just in that rhythm.
Jourdan Clark added a couple of treys as the Titans stretched out the lead in the fourth to earn third place.
Guthrie 63, Union 46 (Boys): Wow. Keaton Callins or Donte’ Foster, take your pick. Union had its hands full with the Guthrie stars.
Callins duplicated Tollison’s feat with six 3’s of his own while Foster was slashing every which way.
Both teams played 2OT Friday, so chalking this one up to Guthrie being upset about losing for the first time this season.
Levi Giese of Union continues to impress me though. Solid outing from him.
You earn third in this tournament, you’ve done something.
Guthrie was down six in the second when a switch went on or something because it took control from that point on.
Del City 46, Union 37 (Girls Championship): I want to so bad give all the credit to DC, but maybe the 4OT game caught up with Union in the fourth quarter.
For three quarters, this was solid. Best-played girls game I’ve seen since Millwood-Seq.Tahlequah 3A championship last year.
In the fourth, all DC as Desiree Jeffries and Toni Young did what you’re supposed to. They carried the day in the second half.
Maybe Jeffries has answered the question before, but I asked her why she wore a different jersey tonight. She looked at me like it was common knowledge. And if it is, sorry.
She wore No. 32 tonight – her lucky number and home jersey. No. 33 is her favorite number and her road jersey.
Regardless of the jersey, she was the best player on the court tonight. She DC wanted to make a statement. Consider it made.
Midwest City 75, Booker T. 74, OT (Boys Championship): Are you kidding me? Did these teams really need another overtime?
Well, yes, they did.
It didn’t look like it would midway through the third as it was all BTW. T.J. Smith in the post and Bryan Harris up high.
MWC’s Robert Wakefield came to play tonight. He scored a career-high 35 points.
And when the Bombers were making their crazy comeback from down 48-33 in the third and fourth quarter, he was draining free throw after free throw.
So it was fitting he hit the game-winning FTs with 3.6 seconds left in overtime.
MWC got it down to two three times in the fourth before a 3-pointer by Traez Colbert cut the margin to 59-58 with 2:13 to play.
MWC took its second lead of the game on a three by Christian Huffman with 32.6 seconds left. BTW’s Smith tied it up, and we went to OT.
In OT, it looked like Harris was going to be crowned hero. With BTW down 71-67, Harris drained a three and drove for another bucket to give ‘em a 72-71 lead.
With the score 74-73, something odd happened.
MWC had been wanting to foul Smith every time. Obviously, the big man is not the best FT shooter.
However, it fouled him before the ball was put in play. I thought it was a FT and the ball on the side.
Smith missed both FTs and that led to Wakefield’s heroics. No complaint on this foul call this time from me.
Smith is a beast and finished with 25. Phenomenal game.
Safe to say the “down” times at Midwest City under new coach Dewayne Bradley are over. What a memorable run for MWC, see how this weekend changes the rest of their season.
Wakefield was named the MVP for the boys while DC’s Jeffries earned the same honor for the girls.
Special thanks to CA for loading me up with Olive Garden and Church’s Chicken. I definitely had my fill today.
The tournament was built up as the best in the state. And for me, it’s an easy one. It sure did live up to the billing. Great three days of basketball where you’re thrilled with going 2-1 and jumping through hoops at going 3-0.
As promised, Sunday a look back at the epic 4 OT game between the Millwood and Union girls.
Well, if you like OT…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
The Boneman has entered his humbled abode here about 12:45 in the morning. You know, just a mere 13 hours after he left to watch basketball at the Carl Albert Titan Classic.
What did I see? How about two double overtime games and one quadruple overtime game where the winner only had 50 points.
The basketball gods were smiling on me because they knew I had not seen one game yet this year of HS basketball.
Let’s get to it…
Millwood 55, Ardmore 50 (boys): Falcons stepped up the defensive pressure and forced Ardmore to speed up.
You’d think that would be to the Tigers liking with their quickness, but they were out of control and Millwood turned a seven-point third quarter deficit into a fairly easy, if not long, win. The fourth quarter was clocked at 38 real-time minutes.
Carl Albert 52, Del City 42 (boys): I was here last year when CA’s Steven Johnson hit a floating game-winner at the buzzer.
No such heroics needed today. DC did a good job on Harrison Dupont, but that just meant that J.T. Realmuto had a fine day.
I liked what I saw from Carl Albert. I’m going to throw out a name that I think will determine how far the Titans go: PG Kendall Parks.
He doesn’t score much, but he’s going to have to be able to distribute the ball. I was surprised at how much Dupont was being the primary ball-handler. Parks is going to need to be that man down the stretch.
He showed glimpses of being able to cope with pressure just fine, so just has to put it together.
I’m a fan of the Calhoun boys at DC (Ismail and Isaiah). But this is a day Isaiah would like to forget. He only scored two points and had some real good looks at the bucket.
Ismail was on his game until he picked up his fourth foul with 3:51 left in the third, ouch.
Excellent atmosphere for the natural rivalry.
Midwest City 63, Guthrie 58, 2OT (Boys): And this is where the fun started. I kinda sat this one out and let my boy Ryan Aber cover it. Hey, Boneman’s gotta eat sometime, right?
MWC’s Xavier McClish was shooting lights out. Is he always like this? That was a fun outing to watch.
Also impressed with the development of Robert Wakefield in the post. I wrote a story on him last year, so I recognized that name right away.
Guthrie’s Donte’ Foster had a chance to seal the deal in regulation but missed about an 18-footer. Foster came through last year when Guthrie defeated MWC in last year’s Titan Classic final.
Amazed at how much Keaton Callins has progressed. Nice touch from the field and great poise under fire.
Tough way for the Jays to lose their first game of the season, but a HUGE win for Dewayne Bradley and company.
Booker T. 67, Union 65, 2OT (Boys): About three times I counted out Union in this game. See, shows what I know.
I’m a little ga-ga for BTW’s three guards (Bryan Harris, Ian Ponds and Tharone Chilton). They can all dribble, all shoot, spells problems for everyone else.
But Union simply would not go away. All the kudos to Tracy Moore. He’s not a basketball player, but he gives so much effort. OSU got lucky with getting him for football.
Also impressed with Union’s Levi Giese. He was scoring down low early and nailing 3’s (what?) late. Unfortunately, a late foul by Giese led to BTW hitting game-winning FTs to advance to the final. And game-winning FTs would rear its ugly head again later.
Del City 38, Carl Albert 33 (Girls): This game surprised me. It was a tough, gritty battle. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen the DC girls play.
While everyone was kinda stubbing their toes, DC’s Desiree Jeffries took over late. She scored the team’s final six points to even the count at 1-1 in the rivalry with the boys and girls.
It was interesting watching DC’s Toni Young and CA’s Kylie Mayes fight it out inside. Both have tremendous futures ahead of them.
Union 50, Millwood 49, 4OT (Girls): Yes, you read that right. Union boys were bitten by late FTs. The girls had it swing the other way.
Destinee Frierson made the second free throw with 1.1 left in quadruple OT to give the Redskins the win.
Personally, I thought it was a bad call. It was a no call. Frierson had her back to the basket on the wing at the 3-point line in a heavy crowd of both Millwood and Union girls. She wasn’t going to get off a viable attempt.
But the whistle was blown and she sank it. Gotta give it to her.
If you remember last year, Frierson was the reason I picked Union to win 6A. While all the talk was about Union’s Lindsay Palmer and Sapulpa’s Alyssia Brewer (both deserve the accolades), I felt/feel Frierson is a special talent.
Millwood girls, I don’t know what to say. I keep thinking “there’s no way this group can amount to much.” But the Falcons have a great floor general in Shea Bowden, good post players in JohVonna Mitchell and Marisha Wallace and a deadly 3-point artist in Tijiasha Reid.
If it wasn’t close to 1 a.m., I’d write more about it. Alas, I’m hours away from heading back to the Classic, so I apologize. Check back Sunday as I wanted to throw out some facts and figures from this game. It’s an anomaly, for sure.
Eight overtimes one day, two great finals coming up (Del City vs. Union for the girls and MWC vs. Booker T. for the boys). Should be fun.
Some swimming thoughts…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
Hey, we STILL do exist. I’m “your man” in the pool. And as we get closer and closer to the state tournament, wanted to chime in on some things.
- Torn on the 5A and 6A deal. Love it for the team aspect, but I get greedy, too. Swimmers like Lizzy Whitbeck of McGuinness and Isaac McKnight of Chickasha deserve that shot to go against 6A’s top dogs.
I’m sure there are other great 5A swimmers, I was just naming the two off the top of my head that I definitely know.
- John Turner is in line for another boys title at Jenks. Didn’t they lose like 15,16 seniors from last year’s group? Remarkable.
After a turbulent summer for Turner and his resignation but then being welcomed back to the Jenks family, might have a storybook ending in store.
- If any team can give Jenks/Union a run, it’s the Stillwater boys. Just not sure if they’re going to have the depth to give ‘em a real strong run.
- Norman and Norman North are both getting stronger as Kent Nicholson is slowly building teams you need to watch out for.
- Wonder what it’s like for Putnam North’s Amy Kilby and Tuttle’s Matthew Bumgarner right now? They’re the last state diving champions after it was yoinked away for this season.
- Does it seem lonely without Samantha Woodward? The buzz is a bit less, but there are still plenty of reasons to watch swimming. Pretty high up on the list is the development of Classen’s Chelsea Ye. Only a freshman but tearing it up.
- Is it a down year for Edmond schools when you don’t expect them to win any team titles? That’s what happens with such tradition. It’ll be interesting in how Edmond coach Steve Riggs views this season. Sometimes, coaches enjoy these seasons the most because they’re watching the kids develop.
- Swimmers, coaches, got results and/or story ideas? E-mail them to me. Always looking for a good story.
- Going to be at the Carl Albert Tournament for basketball this weekend. Might see the best basketball I’ll see this year.
