AREA HOOPS ROUNDUP: Dewey, WCS, Caney Valley, Copan teams display tourney success
Dewey High School’s Austin Eastman (11) drives to the basket during earlier season action. The Bulldoggers defeated Adair, 50-44, in the Adair Tournament on Dec. 9, 2024.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
Following is a roundup of some of the area prep hoops action this week.
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DEWEY BOYS
Lance Knight’s tenure as a Bulldogger assistant or head boys basketball coach extends back approximately two decades or more.
But among the hundreds of wins he has assimilated, few have meant as much — or towered so high — as last Monday’s 50-44 knocking off of the Adair Warriors.
“It’s one of the biggest wins we’ve ever had,” said Knight, the gladness in his voice stretching out through the landline cord.
Dewey and Adair collided in the first round of the Adair Tournament — an annual rite of defeat for Dewey, where third place or a consolation championship has been the expectation.
A sampling of the Adair vs. Dewey scores in the past few years bears out Knight’s point:
2023-24: Adair 68, Dewey 36
2022-23: Adair 64, Dewey 45
2019-20: Adair 76, Dewey 29
2019-20: Adair 65, Dewey 35
Victories against the Warriors have been rarer snow on Memorial Day.
In fact most of the memories of past games against Adair have been the forgettable kind for Dewey.
That’s what made Monday’s an extra-large slice of satisfaction pie.
The Warriors surged to an 11-2 lead to open the action, but Dewey exploded to life like a hibernating grizzly that got up on the wrong side of the bed.
“By the mid-first quarter we turned it on,” said Knight. “We’re kind of in the mindset if we can hold teams in the 40s we’ve got a chance. This was one of the better games we ever played.”
Dewey pushed out to a two possession lead by halftime and never trailed again.
“We came out in the second half swinging,” Knight said. “It was a 16-point game at one time, but they made a run in the fourth period. We did the things we needed to do to win.”
Kooper Crawford helped lead the Dewey effort, Knight said.
Knight proffered prodigious pride on his defense and the players that came off the bench.
Copan High School’s Josh Thomas (10) reaches for a rebound during the Copan Shootout Tournament on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. Copan fell to Cedarvale-Dexter, 36-27. On Monday, the Hornets defeated Foyil, 42-39. The Hornets play Barnsdall at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday for third place. The Copan Lady Hornets girls game set for 10 a.m. Saturday is cancelled due to the other team having a scheduling conflict, according to Copan school officials.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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COPAN BOYS
Sometimes you win pretty, sometimes you win ugly.
Chalk up the 42-39 victory on Monday against Foyil in the latter category.
The victory propelled Copan into the semifinals of its own tournament.
Despite 27 turnovers, the Copan Hornets battled to the three-point win against Foyil.
“It was pretty much a 180 from (our previous game),” said Copan head coach Kolton Stacy. “I tell my guys sometimes you’ve got to win the ugly ones.”
Shooter Brewington dropped in a couple of key three-pointers late in the game. He and Teagan Caron both tallied 11 points to lead the Copan scoring sheet.
Kane Foreman added nine rebounds.
CEDARVALE-DEXTER (Kan.) 36, COPAN 27:
In Thursday’s Copan tourney semifinal, Copan squandered a 12-point second half lead.
A combination of foul challenges and missed layups/turnovers — some of which the Kansas team turned into easy layups — defined Copan’s second half woes.
Copan had opened the game as if the fire department needed to be put on call after Jarrett Shambles ripped three three-pointers in a row to open the scoring.
After forging ahead by 11 points, Copan went into a more deliberate offensive game to try to control the game’s tempo.
“I felt like we did an okay job of executing in the first half,” Stacy said.
Copan carried an 11-point lead into halftime. The Hornets then went up by 12 and missed a pair of layups that could have opened a 16-point lead.
Instead, CedarVale-Dexter whittled down the lead and tied the game early in the fourth quarter.
Another challenge for Copan was the foul trouble suffered by forward Kane Foreman, who would still finish with 10 rebounds.
“When we got down we had to start pushing the ball and hitting some shots,” said Stacy.
But the Hornets (2-1) just did not have enough of them to turn the tide.
Next up, they play Saturday for the third-place game, taking on Barnsdall.
Wesleyan Christian School’s Kyle Kelley (3) fights for a rebound during earlier season action. The undefeated Mustangs will play for the championship game in the Copan Shootout on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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WESLEYAN CHRISTIAN BOYS
The undefeated Mustangs (5-0) stampeded to victory in the first two rounds of the Copan tournament and are headed to the championship game Saturday night (Dec. 14).
On Monday (Dec. 9), the Mustangs repelled the Dewey junior varsity, 71-23, led by three players with double-digit points — Trey White, 18; Kyle Kelley, 14; and Owen Hay, 10.
“Overall, I thought we pushed the pace pretty good,” said veteran WCS head coach Steven Cooks. “We got some good buckets in transition.”
On Thursday (Dec. 12), WCS charged past Barnsdall, 79-43, thanks mostly to 20-point twins Kelley (28 points) and White (24 points).
Hank Siemers stirred the nets with 10.
“He’s (Siemers) been really consistent on the floor with a lot of good non-stat production,” said Cooks.
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CANEY VALLEY GIRLS
It’s been a thumbs-up, Fourth of July fireworks, golden butterfly flight kind of a week for the Lady Trojans.
In two games at the Wilson (Henryetta) tournament, they allowed an average of only 23 points per contest and came within eight seconds of recording a shutout quarter.
The Lady Trojans (4-1) opened the tournament by ringing Liberty’s bell, 41-28, led by double-digit scorers Adesta Henry with 11 points and Abby Daigle and Sydni Brown with 10 apiece.
Caney Valley won the first three quarters — pushing out to an 18-point lead — and then went into de facto coasting mode through the fourth.
Or rather, Liberty caught a gust of momentum, depending on how one wants to characterize it.
“Adesta and Sydni did a fantastic job in the post spot,” Caney Valley head coach Deric Longan said about his undersized front line warriors.
Defense has kind of been our bread and butter, they’ve really bought into playing multiple defense,” he continued. “We’ve also been rebounding well even though most the teams we play are bigger.”
Guard Roxy Hawkins — who scored seven — has been Caney Valley’s second-leading rebounder in five games.
Rounding out the Lady Trojan scorers were Faith Davis, two, and Jayci Tant, one.
In Thursday’s semifinal, the Lady Trojans took down Summit Christian, 32-18.
Brown buried 13 points, followed by Henry and Tant with six apiece, Daigle with five and Hawkins with two.
Summit scored 10 points the first quarter — and only eight points total in the final three periods. In the fourth quarter, Summit hit only one bucket — with just eight seconds left in the game.
The score had been tied 10-10 in the first quarter and 14-14 at halftime. Caney Valley outscored their foe 18-4 in the final two periods.
“Our defense really clamped down in the second half,” Longan said. “We didn’t really give up any offensive rebounds in the second half.”
With the win, Caney Valley advanced to Saturday’s girls title game, set for approximately 6:40 p.m.
“Getting to the championship with this young group is really exciting, really motivating and really positive for them,” Longan added.