Shawnee squads suffer first-round losses
It was a rough opening day for the Shawnee Wolves and Lady Wolves in their own invitational tournament on Thursday.
Choctaw, behind four double-figure scorers, hammered the Shawnee boys 75-50 and the McAlester girls were 58-31 victors over the Lady Wolves in morning action at the SHS Performing Arts and Athletic Center.
Both Shawnee squads dropped into consolation bracket play and were scheduled to play Friday morning.
Choctaw 75, Shawnee 50 (Boys' First Round)
Senior Tanner Morris hit a milestone while scoring 20 points and fellow senior Jaylon Orange added 14, but it wasn't enough to overcome the firepower of the Yellowjackets.
Morris went over the 1,000-point mark in his career during the contest. He just needed two points to hit that mark and did it with a 3-point jumper. Morris was 6-of-13 from the floor, ended up with two treys and was a perfect 6-of-6 from the foul line.
Orange also canned a pair of 3-pointers and was 4-of-4 from the charity stripe.
Two huge differences in the game were Choctaw controlling the boards and Shawnee committing 16 turnovers to the Yellowjackets' five.
Garrett Serner added five points, including one trey, both in the fourth quarter and five other Wolves had three points or less.
Choctaw, led by Ja'mon Valentine's 17 points, shot 48% from the floor and was 8-of-12 from the line. Meanwhile, Shawnee hit at just a 38.5% clip and was 14-of-19 from the free-throw stripe.
Valentine was 8-of-14 from the field and had a stretch of five straight baskets without a miss.
Three other Yellowjackets reached double figures with 10 each, including William Smith, Camden Hyman and Bolton Hawkins. Hawkins' scoring production came in a reserve role.
The Wolves held a 16-14 edge after one quarter, but was outscored in each of the three remaining periods. Choctaw went on a 19-10 spurt in the second in building a 33-26 halftime lead and then outscored Shawnee by a 21-12 count in the third quarter to make it 54-38. The Yellowjackets went on another 21-12 run through the fourth.
Smith pulled down a game-high nine rebounds for Choctaw while Orange and Jalen Wicks were the top rebounders for the Wolves with five each.
McAlester 58, Shawnee 31 (Girls' First Round)
The Lady Buffs, behind 62% shooting in the first period, raced out to an 18-5 advantage entering the second quarter and dominated the contest.
Elizabeth Milligan fired in a game-high 23 points as McAlester held a 25-15 halftime lead and outscored the Lady Woves by a 33-16 count through the second half.
Joining Milligan in double figures for the Lady Buffs were Jayda Holiman with 12 and Stevie Stinchcomb with 11.
McAlester shot 44% from the field for the game while Shawnee hit at just a 25% pace.
The Lady Wolves were also plagued by 21 turnovers to the Lady Buffs' nine.
Amaya Martinez led Shawnee with nine points and nine rebounds. Teammate Anneca Anderson also had nine boards to go with her seven points. Tylyn Thurman also collected seven points and had the Lady Wolves' lone 3-point jumper.
Milligan and Jada Ponce each had a trey for McAlester.
Shawnee did have a 37-34 edge on the boards.
Holiman was the Lady Buffs' top rebounder with eight. She also had four assists and two steals. Stinchcomb totaled five steals and Milligan ended up with three.
This article originally appeared on The Shawnee News-Star: Shawnee squads suffer first-round losses
