Roff senior sinks nine 3-pointers in victory over Tupelo

Jan. 12—ROFF — Roff senior Easton Riddle put on a shooting clinic against Pontotoc Conference foe Tupelo in a Tuesday night home game.

Riddle hit six consecutive 3-pointers in the final 3:35 of the game to put a huge exclamation point on the Tigers' 76-40 runaway victory.

Roff, ranked No. 1 in Class B, improved to 12-4 on the year. It was the Tigers' first action since falling to Class 6A No. 18 Tulsa Union on Dec. 30 at the 2022 Tournament of Champions in Tulsa.

The visiting Tigers dropped to 8-9 on the season.

Riddle — the 2022 Ada News All-Star Classic 3-point champion — sank 9-of-13 3-point shots for all of his game-high 27 points.

"He's as good a shooter as we've ever been around. That was big for him because it hadn't been going in a whole lot lately. I don't know that anybody that knows Easton was surprised to see him do that," Roff head coach Larry Johnston said. "It was awesome. He works hard so it was nice to see that come to fruition."

Riddle also made big plays when the game was still in doubt.

After Tupelo's Davis Weller scored on a drive to trim the Roff lead to 32-24 at the 4:43 mark of the third quarter, Riddle answered with a timely 3-point basket. Seconds later, his steal led to a pull-up jumper by Dylan Reed.

Then, at the 3:06 mark Riddle came up with another takeaway and Bill McCarter followed with a 3-point basket and all of the sudden the hometown Tigers had pushed their lead to 40-24.

"Those were some of the biggest plays he made. Those were right in the middle of that run where they were giving us trouble," Johnston said. "We always tell him to go make those plays on the other end. We don't want you to fear make or miss, but if you play defense you'll stay on the floor. And man, when he stays on the floor he can make a lot of shots."

Roff started the contest on a 25-10 run capped by a 3-pointer and basket inside by Cade Baldridge.

However, after Tupelo playmaker senior playmaker Cody Airington scored on a nifty spin move down the late with 44 seconds left in the second quarter, the visitors had pulled within 29-18 at halftime.

Johnston said there might have been a little rust that showed after his team's long layoff.

"We did a lot of silly things tonight but Tupelo had a lot to do with it. Coach (Clay) Weller's teams always play hard. They attack you and they're definitely not somebody that's going to be in awe of you so that was a really good game for us," he said.

Baldridge scored 15 points for Roff, including a pair of 3-pointers. Reed also hit double figures with 12 points for the home team.

Brand Wilson, whose first career dunk got the RHS faithful fired up late in the third quarter, scored eight points. Bill McCarter also scored eight for Roff.

Airington led the Tupelo offense with 18 points. Sophomore Rodney Sutterfield followed with 11 points, including a trio of 3-point baskets.

Roff will host Stonewall on Friday for Homecoming night. Tupelo will also be at home Friday when Wapanucka visits.