What you need to know about Thursday's action in the McGuinness Classic & Putnam City Invitational

The second half of the Oklahoma high school basketball season got into full swing Thursday, with numerous tournaments kicking off across the state.

Here's a roundup of games that happened across the Oklahoma City metro:

McGuinness Classic

Boys: Norman North 52, Deer Creek 33

Jeremiah Johnson crossed his defender over before pulling up for an uncontested 3-pointer.

The shot rattled in, bringing cheers from the Norman North fans and his teammates on the bench.

Johnson, a junior guard for the Timberwolves, led all scorers with 16 points as Class 6A eighth-ranked Norman North topped No. 18 Deer Creek 52-33 in the opening game of the 62nd annual McGuinness Classic on Thursday. Johnson scored all of his points in the second and third quarters, helping Norman North cruise into the semifinals.

Kevin Overton, who moved from Midwest City before his senior year, had 14 points and four 3-pointers. Jole Atkinson, Nate Lancaster and Ben Moser each tallied seven points.

Norman North (8-3 overall) led 8-4 after a sloppy first quarter, but Johnson took control in the second. He scored nine points, and the Timberwolves jumped to a 20-10 halftime advantage before cruising in the second half.

Camden Laskie and Hudson Linsenmeyer led Deer Creek (4-4) with eight points each.

Del City 58, Choctaw 44

Del City looked like a different team in the second half.

The Class 5A top-ranked Eagles beat Class 6A No. 15 Choctaw 58-44 in the McGuinness Classic quarterfinals on Thursday and did so coming back from a halftime deficit. Del City switched to a full-court pressure look in the third quarter, and doing so quickly took control of the contest.

The Eagles (8-3 overall), who won the Class 6A title last March, have great size and athleticism, and that was clear in the second half. Guards Demarious Vealy, Jamari McCalister, Terry McMorris and forwards Jaedon Foreman and Brandon Garrison were tenacious defensively, forcing numerous turnovers and converting easy buckets on the offensive end.

Garrison led all scorers with 15 points, while McMorris added 11. Five Eagles scored six points.

Choctaw (4-4) went into halftime with a 23-21 lead after Larry Ruffin banked in a half-court shot at the buzzer, but the Yellowjackets struggled to figure out the pressure to open the third quarter. The deficit expanded to double digits, and the Eagles went on to win.

Del City will face Norman North at 6 p.m. Friday in the semifinals.

Edmond Santa Fe 67, McGuinness 49

Edmond Santa Fe ran.

And it didn’t stop.

The Class 6A 11th-ranked Wolves took every opportunity they could to push the ball in transition, and it paid off during a 67-49 win against 5A No. 4 McGuinness in the quarterfinals of the McGuinness Classic. Santa Fe capitalized on fast-break opportunities, turnovers and even made McGuinness baskets to run and score at will.

The Wolves (6-3 overall) raced to a 25-12 lead behind stellar defense and incredible transition offense. Joe Adams and Tanner Williams, who each finished with 17 points, each were dominant pushing the ball and finishing at the rim.

McGuinness turned the ball over six times in the first quarter, but it outscored Santa Fe by one point in each the second and third.

Come the fourth quarter, it was a similar story. McGuinness (7-1) wasn’t able to get back on defense, and it allowed Santa Fe to again take over the game with its transition offense.

The Wolves will face the winner between Edmond Memorial and Norman at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the semifinals. McGuinness will face the loser.

Edmond Memorial 47, Norman 46

Lendy Holmes caught the inbounds pass and turned toward the basket.

With a defender in his face, he turned and fired the ball toward the rim while falling away from pressure. The shot deflected off the top of the glass and barely missed the rim.

Norman’s boys basketball team gave 6A top-ranked Edmond Memorial all it could handle in the final quarterfinal Thursday at the McGuinness Classic, as the Bulldogs escaped with a 47-46 win. Holmes’ final shot missed at the buzzer, but it was quite a turnaround from when these teams played to open the season.

Back in late November, Edmond Memorial won by 29 in each team’s first game.

Norman (1-7 overall) is a much better team than its record indicates. It has numerous losses against teams ranked in the top 10 of their respective classes, including three total against Edmond Memorial and Del City.

But it was the Bulldogs (8-1) that prevailed. JV Seat led all scorers with 19 points, including eight in the fourth quarter with a 4-of-5 mark from the free-throw line. Will Cain added 10 points for Edmond Memorial, which all came in the first half.

For Norman, it was Matt Willenborg scoring 14 points while sophomore Trashaun Combs-Pierce poured in 10.

Edmond Memorial will face Edmond Santa Fe at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the second semifinal game. It will be the team’s third meeting this season, splitting the first two.

Putnam City Invitational

Girls: Classen SAS 76, Putnam City 36

Jordan Harrison reached for the steal and tipped the loose ball to herself.

Noticing the turnover, Micah Gray ran down the middle of the court as Harrison led the fast break from near the sideline. Harrison, a Stephen F. Austin commit, flung a one-handed bounce pass to Gray, who avoided the defender and finished with a layup.

The fast break layup came near the end of the first quarter but it put Classen SAS up by 14 points. The lead only grew throughout Thursday’s matchup as ESPN No. 7 nationally ranked, Classen SAS bested Putnam City 76-39 in the Putnam City Invitational at Putnam City High School.

Classen SAS was able to score baskets all night at the rim, and Baylor commit Darianna Littlepage-Buggs benefited the most, scoring 22 points in three-quarters of play. Skylar Durley followed her with 16 while Gray scored 15 of her own.

Classen SAS improves to 11-1 on the season, while Putnam City falls to 3-6.

Girls: Bixby 74, Edmond Santa Fe 32

Graci Wernli caught the pass on the Bixby fast break.

Wernli fired up the shot and again knocked down the 3-pointer for the third time on three consecutive possessions in the fourth quarter.

On an outstanding shooting night, Wernli finished with 18 points to help lead Bixby over Edmond Santa Fe 74-32. As a team, Bixby knocked down 15 3-pointers and much of it had to do with Wernli and Gentry Baldwin, who each had a hot hand from deep.

Baldwin knocked down five 3-pointers in the first half and one in the second before resting in the fourth quarter. She also finished with 18 points.

“She actually percentage-wise has led us in 3-point statistics for three consecutive years,” Bixby coach Tina Thomas said of Baldwin. “She just doesn’t take a high volume as a point guard so we just had the opportunity this game to make some shifts and get her a few more open looks.”

Girls: Putnam West 75, Muskogee 27

Taliyah Parker set up behind the arc.

The nationally ranked sophomore caught the pass and knocked down the jumper and then smiled as it went through the hoop. It was Parker’s third 3-pointer of the game and her 17th point of the first half.

She was feeling it and it showed on her face.

Parker led Putnam West with 27 points as it took down Muskogee 75-27. Putnam West entered as the No. 25 ranked team in the nation, according to ESPN, and it showed early.

Putnam West got off to a hot start behind Parker’s offensive dominance. The Patriots were even better on the defensive end, using their length to allow just six points in the first half.

Alana Hutchins followed Parker with 10, while Shamar Bert scored nine points.

Boys: Putnam City 56, Wichita Falls Hirschi 49

Isaac Williams took the ball down the lane and saw the help defender come toward him.

The sophomore guard didn’t fret, performing a euro step in the paint to give him space to put home the layup.

The basket gave Putnam City a 10-point lead late in the third quarter, and the Pirates went on to a 56-49 win over Wichita Falls, Texas Hirschi.

The two teams battled in a close matchup throughout the first half with one point separating them at the halftime buzzer. Texas Hirschi’s Ernest Young (22) scored a majority of Hirschi’s points in the first half. But Putnam City came out in the second half on a 14-4 third-quarter run led by Temper Nichols, who finished with 17 points on four 3-pointers and Williams, who had 15.

Nichols scored eight of his 17 in the fourth quarter to close out the game.

BOYS: PUTNAM WEST 65, MUSKOGEE 64

Orian Scales knew where his teammate was supposed to be.

On a set play out of the timeout, Scales lobbed the pass toward the basket with his teammate near the rim.

Corey Gordan caught the pass in air and laid it off the glass before coming to the ground to bring Putnam West within two points with 20 seconds left to play.

All the Patriots needed after the made basket was a turnover.

They got it.

From there, Carlsheon Young took the game into his hands. Young drove to the basket and in between the Muskogee defenders to finish the layup through the foul that knocked him to the ground as the crowd roared in excitement. In the tie game, Young knocked down his free throw with four seconds to go.

Young’s late and-1 bucket was the game-winning score in Putnam West come-from-behind 65-64 win over Muskogee.

The two teams were tied after the first and the second quarter in a back and forth game. Javontae Campbell scored 33 points in the loss to go along with multiple steals. But Putnam West found a way to win. Gordan led with 17 points while Young and Boomer Barnes finished with 11.

Girls

BIXBY 74, EDMOND SANTA FE 32

BBS;;22;;23;;12;;17;;—;;74

ESF;;9;;5;;9;;9;;—;;32

BBS (8-2) Baldwin 18, Wernli 18, Nielsen 15, Mayes 6, Prince 5, Blankenship 3, Daniel 3

ESF (5-3) Britt 10, Robertson 6, Rasmussen 5, Gorman 2, Crawford 5, Jeupow 4

CLASSEN SAS 76, PUTNAM CITY 39

SAS;;21;;26;;21;;8;;—;;76

PC;;6;;5;;6;;22;;—;;36

SAS (11-1) — Littlepage-Buggs 22, Durley 16, Gray 15, O’Conner 11, Harrison 8, Calingasan 2, Glenn 2

PC (3-6) — Hill 15, Davis 9, Green 6, Holmes 4, Johnson 3, Booker 2

PUTNAM WEST 75, MUSKOGEE 27

PCW;;21;;15;;20;;19;;—;;75

MUSKOGEE;;4;;2;;5;;16;;—;;27

PCW (11-1) — Parker 27, Hutchins 10, Bert 9, J. Brown 8, Fisher 8, Smith 8, K. Brown 3, Melton 2

MUSKOGEE (2-5) — Eubanks 11, McVay 7, Swanson 5, Burton 4

Boys

PUTNAM CITY 56, TEXAS HIRSCHI 49

PC;;16;;10;;14;;16;;—;;56

TH;;13;;14;;4;;18;;—;;49

PC Nichols 17, Williams 15, Thomas 7, Booker 6, Nnonah 6, T. Jones 4, J. Jones 1

TH Young 22, Clay 10, Ingram 7, Carroll 6, Anderson 2, Brown 2

PUTNAM WEST 65, MUSKOGEE 64

PCW;;14;;15;;12;;13;;11;;—;;65

MUSKOGEE;;14;;15;;15;;10;;10;;—;;64

PCW — Gordan 17, Barnes 11, Young 11, James 10, Scales 7, Blout 4, Warner 4, Coustant 1

MUSKOGEE — Ja. Campbell 33, Reed 14, Duneau 8, Hiner 4, Johns 4, J. Campbell 1

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma HS basketball scores: McGuinness, Putnam City tournaments