TUPATALK: Generations

If certain things happen this week — as they appear almost certain to do — this could be one of the most significant weeks in the 40-plus years history of Bartlesville High School boys basketball.

Junior guard David Castillo is less than 40 points away from surpassing Noah Hartsock's recorded as the Bruins' all-time career leading scorer.

Castillo could have achieved that mark Tuesday at Muskogee — the deadline for today's paper was before game time.

If he didn't clinch the mark Tuesday, Castillo appears on target to accomplish if this coming Friday night at home against Jenks.

It will be a marvelous milestone for Castillo, whose skills and performance have heaped honor on Bruin basketball and the Bartlesville sport program.

In recognition of this special week, following is a Blast from the Past of part of a reprint of a Bartlesville basketball article during the Hartsock era in the 2000s.

—

According to at least one musical source, Jeremiah was a bullfrog.

But, in the Bartlesville High boys basketball dictionary, Jeremiah is a bulldog.

A tall, tall bulldog.

Jeremiah Hartsock battled bigger even than his 6-foot-7 frame to help power the Bruins past a doggedly-determined Sapulpa squad, 57-44. Hartsock scuffed up the nets with 14 field goals in 21 attempts to post a titanic 28-point outburst to go with 10 rebounds.

Willie Rogers added 14 points, doing most his damage from the outside. Rogers buried four three-pointers — all in the first half.After being stuck at the 13 win-total for better than a week, the Bruins improved to 14-4 on the season, 6-4 in the Frontier Conference and 4-2 in the Frontier Conference West Division.

Bartlesville now faces the final stretch run of its season going into the playoffs. The Bruins travel to Ponca City on Tuesday, go to Broken Arrow on Friday and wrap up the regular season at home on Feb. 18 for Senior Night against Sand Springs.

Bruin head coach Tim Bart is hoping Friday’s high-energy performance against Sapulpa will key a fiery run by the Bruins through the end of the season and into the postseason.

“We needed a game like this,” he said. “This is good for us. I think we needed it after losing two straight games. It was good to have that kind of a game in front of the homecrowd. The players had fun.”

Bart said the team has had to think its way through its recent adversity.

The squad’s strategy going into Friday’s game was agonizingly apparent. Pound the ball inside to big forwards Hartsock and Doug Benjamin (6-5) and ask them to carry the load. They combined for 35 points, with Benjamin scoring seven on three field goals and a free throw.

Benjamin also dished out two key assists in the first half to help Bartlesville take control of the game.

With Hartsock and Benjamin carving up Sapulpa’s defense on the inside, shooting guard Willie Rogers peppered the Chieftains from the perimeter. He knocked down four three-pointers in the first half.

But, a little bird prevented Bartlesville from repeating its 27-point drubbing of Sapulpa earlier this season, 56-29. Sapulpa 6-foot-1 senior Brett Nightingale winged his way to a 20-point night, and senior teammate David Samonds added 18 to keep Bartlesville from pulling too far ahead most the game. The first quarter evolved into a shooting battle with both teams combining for 30 points.

Hartsock opened the scoring with a sweeping hook 48 seconds into the game.

Samonds scored onn a drive and pull-up jumper from the right baseline. The battle was engaged and the intensity would be hotter than a Black Widow’s bite.

After a Sapulpa timeout just 2:12 into the game, Bruin trainer Allan Mount had to towel up a pool of sweat from where the Bruin players had been standing.

The Bruins pushed their lead to 8-4 when Hartsock rebounded a missed shot and made the putback. Toward the mid-point of the first quarter, Rogers began to find his outside stroke.

Rogers came into the game with an 0-for-10 streak in three-point field goals ... but flushed a trey to put Bartlesville ahead, 11-6.

Sapulpa’s Nightingale answered with a three-pointer on the other end. Rogers enjoined the long-range contest by hitting another three-pointer on Bartlesville’s subsequent possession.

He also would bury another two three-pointers in the second quarter and finished with 14 points for the game. By the end of the first quarter, Bartlesville clung to a 16-14 lead, never having trailed.

With the completely-full Bruin student section chanting “Dee-fense!…Dee-fense!…Dee-fense!,” Bartlesville started the second quarter with a 15-2 run.

The most-exciting moment during this stretch came at the tail end. It started when Bruin guard Clint Bales grabbed a defensive rebound and broke down the court on a fast break.

Bales passed the ball ahead to Davis. The pass was too strong, however. Davis leaped over the end line to grab the ball in mid-air and looked back to spot Rogers trailing him. Davis flipped the ball to Rogers, who went up for the layup between a double-team to but Bartlesville ahead, 31-16.

Toward the end of the third quarter, Bartlesville upped its lead to 16 points, 46-30, when Ben Rovenstine ripped a hook pass to Benjamin behind the defense for a layup. When the third quarter closed Bartlesville led by 14, 46-32.

As in the third quarter, Sapulpa never closed within double digits of the lead.

When the Chieftains narrowed the gap to 10, 52-42, Bartlesville went on a 5-0 run, sparked by Caleb Rovenstine’s lay-up. Rovenstine had been camping unguarded on the low right block, lonelier than a cockroach in the bathwater. Rogers, who was playing point guard, spotted Rovenstine and whipped him the ball for the back-door deuce.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: TupaTalk column