MULDROW — Last week, the Muldrow Lady Bulldogs finished second at the highly competitive Tournament of Champions in Tulsa.
The Lady Bulldogs wanted to display a similar intensity when they returned home to begin the 2018 Armstrong Bank Sequoyah County Area Classic. Muldrow, which lost for the first time this season with Friday's loss to 6A Owasso in the Tournament of Champions title game, bounced back on Tuesday with a 69-11 win against Gore in the opening round of the SCAC.
"Last week was by far our biggest challenge that we've had at the Tournament of Champions, and we wanted to make sure we came off of that and come down and play as well here as we did up there and not have a letdown at all," Muldrow coach Jana Armer said. "A lot of times after you come off of a tournament, you have a little bit of a letdown and we might have had a little bit of a letdown the first half. We came out and kind of relaxed a little bit, and I'm glad to see us pick it back up in the second half of this game (Tuesday)."
On Tuesday, the Lady Bulldogs were tied at 3 early before breaking the game wide open, running off 18 straight points to end the first quarter. The run included several layups from sophomore forward Taylen Collins and 3-point baskets from Hannah Boyett and Paige Hughes.
A 3 from Breanna Daws to start the second quarter extended the lead to 24-3. Muldrow went on to a 26-6 halftime lead and extended it to 53-10 at the end of three quarters.
Despite Friday's loss in the Tournament of Champions title game, the Lady Bulldogs (9-1) continued their ascent up the 4A statewide rankings, coming in at No. 3 this week after being ranked No. 4 last week. Muldrow opened the Tournament of Champions by beating 5A No. 1 Tahlequah and then defeated 4A No. 8 Victory Christian.
"Overall, our start has been good," Armer said. "We still have lots of things to improve on, but thank goodness it's just the beginning of January and we've got time to improve on those before the playoffs.
"That was another thing (the rankings); I feel like we've gained some respect around here and that's what we wanted to do (last week). We felt like we had a good basketball team and we wanted to go up there and compete and show everybody else what we had. Maybe we opened a few eyes and maybe we didn't, but I know the experience was well worth the trip."
Collins led all scorers with 18 points, 10 in the first half. Daws added nine points on three 3's, while Boyett and Chalynn Mayes each added eight points.
With Tuesday's win, the Lady Bulldogs will move on to Thursday's semifinals on their home court, where they will take on Central at 7 p.m. Central defeated Vian in an opening-round game on Tuesday.
Sallisaw 51, Stigler 50
GIRLS — Kaylee Bemo is the lone senior on Sallisaw's roster.
Bemo helped ensure that her relatively younger Lady Diamond teammates got to advance to the SCAC semifinals on a game-winning basket with 4.3 seconds left.
Sallisaw (3-5) will take on Roland, which beat Gans in a first-round game Tuesday at Central, in a semifinal game set for 4 p.m. Thursday in Muldrow.
Bemo's shot capped a wild finish in which the lead alternated three times inside the final minute.
Sallisaw took a 49-48 lead with 36 seconds left on a steal and layup from freshman guard Mackenzie Beach. The Lady Panthers (2-5) answered on the other end when Savannah Seymour converted a turnaround jumper in the lane, giving Stigler a 50-49 advantage.
With 8.9 seconds remaining, Bemo drew a foul and went to the line for two shots. She missed both free throws, but the ball landed in Bemo's hands. Bemo took a couple of steps near the baseline and released a shot, which banked off the glass with 4.3 seconds to go to give Sallisaw the lead once again.
An off-balance shot from the Lady Panthers at the buzzer was well short, and Sallisaw was able to hang on.
Bemo finished with 17 points, 10 of those in the second half. Sophomore Taite Stites added 12 for Sallisaw.
Stigler was led by 21 points from Shauntey Hays, while Mattie Self added 15, all in the second half.
2018 Armstrong Bank Sequoyah County Area Classic
Girls
Muldrow 69, Gore 11
Gore 3 3 4 1 — 11
Muldrow 21 5 27 16 — 69
Gore: Call 5, Sheffield 4, Springer 1, Ward 1.
Muldrow: Collins 18, Daws 9, Boyett 8, Mayes 8, Chambers 6, McCloria 5, Hughes 5, Jenkins 3, Reeves 2, Powell 2, Johnson 2, Smithson 1.
Sallisaw 51, Stigler 50
Sallisaw 4 15 14 18 — 51
Stigler 7 8 18 17 — 50
Sallisaw: Bemo 17, Stites 12, M. Beach 9, Tehee 8, Maxwell 3, C. Beach 2.
Stigler: Hays 21, Self 15, Seymour 9, Warren 5.