AREA HOOPS: WCS teams sweep Claremore Christian; CV girls level Mounds
Wesleyan Christian School's Trey White (12) fights for the ball during action against Claremore Christian on Nov. 22, 2024 in Bartlesville. The Mustangs won, 77-33.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
Wesleyan Christian School's Lydia Foster (3) drives the ball up the court during action against Claremore Christian on Nov. 22, 2024 in Bartlesville. Foster scored 15 points in the Lady Mustang’s 58-47 win.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
Bartlesville Area Sports Report
Following are details from Friday’s (Nov. 22) area high school basketball games. (Bartlesville High games appear in a separate article.)
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WESLEYAN CHRISTIAN SCHOOL GIRLS
Boosted by the clutch scoring of Lydia Foster the Wesleyan Christian School girls basketball team churned past Claremore Christian, 58-47, in Friday’s season opener.
Trailing by four points in the third quarter, the WCS Lady Mustangs turned to their gritty veteran warrior Foster — and she delivered like the pizza man.
Foster sliced up the Claremore Christian defense with 15 points in the fourth quarter to flip the game’s trajectory into a Lady Mustang win.
“Our girls battled back and fought through adversity and we ended up beating them,” said head coach Kendall Huntington, who has returned to the team after a one-year sabbatical to help care of her growing family.
Huntington endured some grueling times during systemic rebuilding struggles in past seasons. That deepens her appreciation of this year’s potential.
“I was waiting on this group. … These were my babies who I’ve been coaching since the fifth grade,” she said, adding the girls talked her into returning to take charge of the team.
“It’s been the biggest blessing, being able to spend every day with these girls,” she said.
Friday’s debut proved to be a measuring stick of progress for a Lady Mustang program that has struggled the past several years for game success.
“We came out very strong,” said Huntington.
Just as importantly, the Lady Mustangs finished strong.
Kori White poured in 15 points to complement Foster’s career-high 27-point performance.
Whitlie Tennison also reached double-digits (10 points) to round out the Lady Mustangs’ top three scorers.
Miranda Hadrava and Emily Christenson added four and two points, respectively.
Next up, WCS travels on December 2 to Barnsdall.
Wesleyan Christian Schools Whitlie Tennison (22) passes the ball during the Lady Mustang’s 58-47 win over Claremore Christian on Nov. 22, 2024 in Bartlesville.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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WESLEYAN CHRISTIAN BOYS
With skilled warriors Kyle Kelley and Trey White back to lead the way, the WCS Mustangs opened the season with a blast of power Friday.
Led by three players in double-digit scoring, the Mustangs stampeded past Claremore Christian, 77-33.
White skinned the cords with 14 points, followed by Kelley with 13 and Owen Hay with 10.
Timothy Wisdom added nine.
Some other key players included Zander Week and Jarrett Jensen, both starting just one week removed from the football field.
Steven Cooks enters his fourth year as WCS head coach. His career record is impressive: 62-16 (.795).
Despite losing key seniors off last year’s team, Cooks has confidence in this year’s team to make a memorable mark.
“This might be the most cohesive group I’ve had,” he said. “They are great friends off the court as well as on it, which is one of the better aspects of this team.”
He also praised the skill of the players.
In addition, “we’ve been running the same stuff for four years,” he said.
This year’s team will have new emphasis on pressure defense, he added.
Next up, the Mustangs travel on Dec. 2 to Barnsdall.
Cooks’ year-by-year record:
2021-22 20-4
2022-23 17-7
2023-24 24-5
Caney Valley High School’s head coach Deric Longan talks to his team during a last season game. The Lady Trojans defeated Mounds, 44-19 in their season opener on Nov. 22, 2024 in Ramona.
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CANEY VALLEY HIGH GIRLS
Without a doubt, for the past 12 years the Lady Trojans have been consistently the most successful girls basketball team in the area.
Their cumulative win-loss mark since starting with the 2012-13 campaign — after Deric Longan had taken charge of the program — is 181-112 (.618). They’ve powered to 11 winning records in a dozen seasons.
Friday’s season opening rout of Mounds High School, 44-19, could be a launching point into another powerful season.
But there’s a difference. For the first time in several years Longan is in true rebuilding mode — and working with a smallish roster of eight girls.
After graduating six seniors from last year’s 16-9 team, Longan fields a very young mix this season — no seniors, two juniors, two sophomores and four freshmen.
Considering the starting-over mode, Friday’s 25-point victory proffered a powerful statement of prodigious potential.
Not surprisingly, Caney Valley split up its scoring pie in equal slices — nine points each by underclassmen Sydni Brown, Jaycee Tant, Roxy Hawkins and Adesta Henry.
Abby Daigle and Jocelyn Chancellor represent the junior class,
Brown and Tant are in the Class of 2027 and Henry and Hawkins both are freshmen.
Daigle, Brown, Tant, Henry and Hawkins started the game, but all eight players saw floor time.
“Our strength is we’ve got a bunch of eager girls that play extremely hard,” Longan said. “We haven’t had to rebuild in quite a while. … Obviously we had some youthful mistakes but the girls showed the effort and willingness to do whatever it took. It was exciting.”
Dominance on the boards fueled Caney Valley’s stingy defensive squeeze, Longan added.
Caney Valley High School’s Logan Horsman drives the ball during a game last season. The Trojans fell to Mounds, 47-42, in their season opener in Ramona.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
CANEY VALLEY BOYS
Despite a strong infusion of youth into the lineup, the Trojans came within just a few seconds of knocking off Mounds in Friday’s season opener.
Caney Valley missed a late shot that would have put it in the lead and Mounds held on to win, 47-42.
“We had a game winner rattle in and rattle out,” said veteran Trojan head coach “Tug” Brinker. “First of all, we have a lot of new faces. We have one guy (Maverick Condry) with a lot of experience and two guys (Logan Horsman and Ethan Brown) with some experience.”
Senior Zeb Shaw, whose high school hoops’ career has been impacted by injuries, is back in action and “really did some good things for us,” Brinker said.
Caney Valley tallied only four points in the first period, but battled to within six points by halftime, 21-15, and trailed only by five at the end of three quarters, 31-26.
Condry finished with 18 points to lead the scoring sheet.
Turnovers and miscues took their toll, but Brinker believes his team will correct those things with more playing time and experience.