KETCHUM — The Central Tigers basketball team finds itself just a win away from the Class 2A State Tournament, which will be March 7-9 in Oklahoma City.
The Tigers won Saturday night’s Class 2A Regional Tournament title game 63-59 over Oktaha, which canceled out on its Feb. 9 road game against Central to end up costing CHS its Senior Night games.
The Tigers (16-8), who won their regional championship semifinal 6451 over Hartshorne on Thursday night, will meet the Merritt Oilers at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Class 3A Area Tournament finals at Enid’s Stride Bank Center — the same site as the Class 4A Dual State Wrestling Tournament for the Sallisaw Black Diamonds wrestling team Feb. 9. If they should lose Friday night, the Tigers can come back at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the area consolation finals and win it to make state.
The news was not as good for the Lady Tigers as they were eliminated from the playoffs after losing the regional tournament consolation finals 51-36 to Oktaha on Saturday afternoon after falling 66-44 to Hartshorne in Thursday night’s regional championship semifinals and beating Caney Valley 48-40 in Friday night’s regional consolation semifinals to end the season at 19-6.
In the boys’ regional final, the Tigers trailed 1918 after a quarter, but they outscored Oktaha’s Tigers 45-40 over the final three periods to get the comefrom- behind win.
For the game, Central put a trio of players into double figures, led by Jace Mendenhall’s 18 points, followed by Cade Tucker’s 17 points and Aiden Sainer’s 16 points. Hardy Buzzard had seven points, followed by Joseph Lee with four points and Cole Holcomb with a free throw.
In the boys’ regional semifinal, the Tigers virtually led from start to finish, leading 20-12 after a quarter, 37-27 at halftime and 49-37 after three quarters.
For the game, the Tigers again had a triplet of double-figures scores, led by Sainer with 19 points, Isaac Rogers with 14 points and Mendenhall with 10 points. Tucker had eight points, followed by Buzzard with five points, Braxin Goodson with four points and Lee and Coy Blackburn with two points apiece.
In the girls’ regional consolation finals, Oktaha’s Lady Tigers jumped out to an 11-8 lead after a period, which became a 24-16 halftime advantage and a 39-27 lead going into the fourth quarter.
In defeat, Hadlie Woods and Haley Cheek each scored 10 points to lead Central, followed by Ayrland Jiles with nine points, Cambree Bair with three points and Koda Robbins and Paris Campbell with two points apiece.
In the girls’ regional consolation semifinals, the Lady Tigers broke a 10-all tie after the first quarter with a 16-2 second period to take a 2612 lead at halftime. After Caney Valley outscored them 22-10 in the third quarter to cut Central’s lead to 36-34, the Lady Tigers outscored the Lady Trojans 12-6 in the final period to hand on for the season-saving win.
For the game, Bair scored a game-high 19 points and Woods added 16 points to lead Central, followed by Cheek with eight points, Jiles with four points and Robbins with a free throw.
In the girls’ regional championship semifinals, the Lady Miners, who led 18-17 after a quarter, outscored the Lady Tigers 48-27 over the final three periods to win going away.
In defeat, Bair led Central with a game-high 18 points, followed by Robbins with eight points, Woods with seven points, Jiles and Cheek with five points each and Brianna Taylor with a free throw.
