HOOPS A'PLENTY: Hectic weekend for area teams; WCS wins Copan tourney

Few things are absolutely dead certain in sports.

But, no matter what happened Friday night at the Holly C. Ward Gymnasium in Ramona, one thing was certain — Caney Valley was going to win.

Of course, that’s not much of prediction — when Caney Valley (Okla.) played Caney Valley (Kan.) in an interstate high school basketball showdown.

The two-pronged clash ended up in a split. The Caney valley (Okla.) Lady Trojans outlasted the Caney Valley (Kan.) Lady Bullpups, 43-35.

In the guys game, the Sunflower State striplings scrapped past the hometown Trojan quorum, 51-44.

Following are summaries of these and other weekend area basketball games.

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MUSTANG RUMBLE

Wesleyan Christian didn't need a roadmap to arrive at a championship destination on Saturday.

The Mustangs needed only some inspired play, two big scorers and hustling contributions by everyone in order to beat Cedar Vale-Dexter (Kan.) in the boys championship game of the Copan tourney, 54-38.

Ty Cloud and Cooper Holley poured in 19 and 17 points, respectively, to fuel the Mustangs' offensive attack. Jarrett Jensen inspired a big defensive effort and also added five points.

Jensen did a good job on Dexter's big post power, WCS head coach Steven Cooks said.

"There were a lot of non-state plays he made," Cooks added.

Next up, WCS (4-0) plays host at 6 p.m. Tuesday to Copan and takes the floor again Thursday to play Barnsdall.

THRILLA IN COPAN

Just a couple of days after the Copan Hornets fell by 42 points to Cedar Vale-Dexter (Kan.), 59-17, they boomeranged back Friday in a booming way.

Energized by three freshmen with a total of 37 points, the young Hornets muscled past Barnsdall, 52-50, in the second round of the Copan Tournament.

The victory elevated Copan into the consolation championship game Saturday.

With 12 seconds remaining, the Barnsdall Panthers inched into the lead, 50-49, a few seconds later, Copan stole an inbounds pass and O’Rourke made a layup and a free throw to push the Hornets to the bounce-back win.

Shooter Brewington pumped in 14 points to paced the Copan attack, followed by Kane Foreman with 12 and O’Rourke with 11. O’Rourke also made eight steals.

Karson Woodworth added nine crucial points, followed by Jarrett Shambles, four, and Teegan Caron, two.

“I think we didn’t freak out,” said Copan head coach Kolton Stacy. “They pressed us just like Cedar Vale did. I felt we did a better job not letting the game get too fast. … We were more aggressive in the half-court.”

Woodworth, Caron and Shambles provided the main ball handling heroics against Barnsdall’s press.

Copan improved to 3-2.

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DOGGER DELIGHT

After being jarred by a couple of ruts in their early journey, the Dewey Doggers motored into a smooth traction Friday night in the Adair tourney.

The Doggers pulled past Afton, 50-47, for their first win and to earn a spot in the boys consolation championship game — and they did it with two of their primary players, Ryder Muninger and Easton Davis, out due to illness.

Dewey held the lead for a good chunk of the way but couldn’t put the pesky Afton scrappers away.

However, Dewey also remained strong in the storm of Afton’s stubbornness.

Jace Williams and Zaiden Masters led the Dewey scoring parade with 18 and 12 points, respectively, followed by Jeremiah Highsmith with six.

Colby Miller, Lathe Griggs and Zane Griggs each added four points, followed by Clayton Evans with two.

“We hit our free throws. … We found a way to win it,” Dewey head coach Lance Knight said.

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EIGHT IS ENOUGH

Sparked by the smoking one-two punch of Sammi Gilbreath (17 points) and Jade Upton (16 points), the Caney Valley Lady Trojans knocked off the visiting Caney Valley Lady Pups by eight points, 43-35.

Caney Valley bolted to leads of 15-6 at the end of the first quarter and 27-12 by halftime.

“We’ve been fortunate and have pretty decent starts early,” Lady Trojan head coach Deric Longan said. “She’ve shot the ball pretty well early. In the first half, we played about as good as we can play.”

Due to injuries, Longan had to go to battle without starters Chloe Scherman and Libby Thompson.

Longan called on Myah Edwards and Amaya Toftee to fill their spots and “I thought they stepped up and played pretty well,” he said.

The Lady Trojans got out as far as 17 points, but the Lady Pups kept tearing away at the lead — especially from beyond the three-point line. Alyssa Scott nailed four of them for the Lady Pups.

But, the Lady Trojans’ defense still prevailed.

Rounding out Caney Valley’s scorers were Kensly Foreman, eight; Maddox Hines, one; and Amaya Toftee, one.

Caney Valley improved to 3-1 on the season.

Next up, the Lady Trojans open Welch tourney play when they play there at 7 p.m. Monday.

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PUPS POUNCE PAST TROANS

The Caney Valley (Kan.) Bullpup boys bolted to a 17-6 lead and the Caney Valley (Okla.) Trojans had to play catch-up the rest of the way Friday night..

In the fourth quarter, the host Trojans cut the margin to four and missed two layups that could have tied it, Trojan had coach Tub Brinker said.

“My kids played hard,” he added. “They did the best they could. We’ve got some stuff we’ve got to figure out. … We just get off to a slow start. We struggled back. Our defense was good and we got open shots, we’ve got to hit them. … We’re a shorter team and our rebounding has to get better.”

The Pups dominated the boards in the first half, but the Trojans gave a tougher battle in the second half cleaning the glass.

Tate Longan dialed in 17 points to lead the Trojans, followed by Rocky Hester with 14 and Mav Condry with 12.

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FOYIL-ED AGAIN

For the second time this season, the Copan Lady Hornets pushed Foyil hard — only to come up short.

Foyil squeezed past Copan, 35-25, in Saturday’s third-place game in the girls’ bracket.

“We had our opportunities,” said Copan head coach Kristy Bryan. “We should have won. We didn’t capitalize on our chances. We’ve got to get back to practice and work on fundamentals.”

Elyzabeth Odm and Jayden Purdum each scored seven to lead Copan scorers, followed by Kamryn Van with five, Rylee Vanschuyver with four and Kylee Cobb with two.

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CAN'T QUITE CATCH'EM

Dewey girls displayed some strong scoring defense -- but 23 points on offense ususally isn't going to get it done.

Ketchum took advantage of 21 free throws to pull past Dewey, 42-23, on the final day of Adair tourney play Saturday.

"It was self-inflicted on our part, turning the ball over, and not making the right decisions" first-year Dewey head coach Michael Sanders said. "Our defense in the half court is fine."

Maci Rogers and Leigha Sureti were among Dewey's leading scorers

Dewey went to battle without some of its players, due to illness.

"We didn't have our full team all week," Sanders noted. "We've been battling the flu around school. … We haven't been at full force since Nowata (Dec. 2). We should have everybody back this week for Oklahoma Union and Caney, Kan. We typically don't give up. We keep in the fight. We're going to keep getting better day by day."

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TOO MUCH MANNFORD

Mannford proved to be the hardest-fighting swabbies in the fight at the Ty Hewitt Memorial (Nowata) Tournament in the boys basketball bracket.

The Pirates scuttled all their opposition, concluding with a 69-39 defeat of a very good Oklahoma Union Cougars team.

The Cougars, who play on the Class 2A level, had to face three 4A squads in the Nowata tourney.

"They were really good," Oklahoma Union head coach Brad Hall said about Mannford. "They beat everybody by about 30 points."

Kaide Hill scored 16 points for the Cougars, followed by Jack Campos with 10, to lead the offense.

Next up, Oklahoma Union takes on Dewey on Tuesday.

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OH, SO CLOSE

Fairland took advantage of a slowpace to knock off Nowata, 38-35, in the girls third-place game Saturday at the Ty Hewitt Memorial (NOwata) Tournament.

"We got in some foul trouble and they slowed the game down a little bit," Nowata head coach Thad Hewitt said. "We never got the pace where we needed it to be."

Kennedy Nubel and Ty Brown topped Nowata in scoring.

The Lady Ironmen have played good scoring defense so far this young season, Hewitt said.

Next up, Nowata travels Tuesday to Chelsea and on Friday to Commerce.

"We continue to be playing … hard," Hewitt said. "They've kind of bought into what we're trying to do. They've all bought into the change. Nothing's really the same as previously."

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DETAILS, DETAILS AND FREE THROWS

With just a tad more focus and a lot more hocus-pocus from the free throw line The Copan Hornets might have made a victory materialize Saturday in the final round of the Copan tourney.

But, defeat turned out to be their destiny, instead, as Prue pulled off an abra-cadabra act, instead, producing rally magic that took them from seven points down with less than four minutes left to a seven-point win, 61-54.

"We turned the ball over a couple of times and we couldn't bounce back," noted Copan first-year head coach Kolton Stacy.

Copan thrived on hot offensive hands by Shooter Brewington and Kane Foreman with 24 and 10 points, respectively. Weston O'Rourke and Teegan Caron added six points each.

Stacy offered unqualative praise to his young Hornet team's desire.

"They fight," he said. "They hate losing. They fight back. … They always know the score."

But, the Hornets also are as green as a frog's complexion when it comes to varsity experience. The four leading scorers mentioned above are all freshmen and sophomore Karson Woodworth is one of the other key players.

The challenge in working with a young squad is "just getting them to understand how small the margin is between winning and losing," Stacy said. "That's why we're 3-3 instead of 5-1. They don't full understand the little details such as taking care of the ball or playing defense for 32 minutes and not taking plays off."

Next up, Copan eyes a rivalry showdown Tuesday at Wesleyan Christian School. Tip-off is likely set for 6 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: A look at a busy weekend in area high school basketball