Bartlesville basketball teams forge split in regular season finales
Bartlesville High School’s Titus Huck (30) goes to the basket during an earlier season game. The Bruins fell to Ponca City, 42-41 on February 21, 2025.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
Bartlesville High School’s Alayah Lunn (4) gets ready for a free throw during an earlier season game. The Lady Bruins defeated Ponca City,
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
February 25, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
There’s a lot of winning class in the Class of 2025 for the Bartlesville High School girls basketball team.
With Friday’s businesslike 58-40 win at Ponca City High School the Lady Bruins (13-11) assured themselves of the team’s first winning record since the 2018-19 season — and only the third winning season in the last 11 years.
Next up, the Lady Bruins — who are coached by Justyn Shaw — open the Class 6A playoffs with a game Thursday evening at Broken Arrow High School.
Regardless of how they fare in the postseason the Lady Bruins will finish better than .500. Bartlesville’s most recent winning seasons were: 2018-19 (18-8), 2017-18 (26-2) and 2016-17. Prior to that, Bartlesville hadn’t put together a winning campaign since 2013-14 (14-9).
Meanwhile, the Bartlesville Bruin boys (3-20) will have to wait until next season to try to nail down the team’s first winning season since 2021-22 and only its third since 2014-15.
Ponca City held on Friday to beat the Bruins, 42-41 — Bartlesville’s second-straight one-point loss and its fourth setback by less than four points in its last six games.
The Bruins — who are coached by Tommy DeSalme — are scheduled for their playoff opener next Friday night (Feb. 28) at Owasso.
Following are more details from Friday’s games.
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Bartlesville High School’s Trae Collins moves the ball during an earlier season game. The Bruins fell to Ponca City, 42-41 on February 21, 2025.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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BOYS: Ponca City 42, Bartlesville 41
Bartlesville gagged Ponca City’s offense in the first half like a tongue depressor.
By halftime, the host Wildcats had scored only a baker’s dozen’s worth of points and Bartlesville led, 21-13.
But Ponca City went on a 16-point rant in the third quarter to pull past ice cold-shooting Bartlesville, 29-28.
The Bruins trailed by as many as six in the fourth quarter and never caught up.
They pulled to within one, 37-36, on Jordan Turner’s bucket and within two, 40-38, on Bryson Gutierrez’ deuce.
Ponca City extended its lead to 42-28 in the final few seconds. The best Bartlesville could do in that situation was to get a three-pointer from Hunter Holmes to make it a one-point loss at the buzzer.
Bartlesville held a team to 42-or-fewer points for the fifth time this season.
While not producing an offensive bonanza in the first half, the Bruins took control with their defense.
Trae Collins scored 11 of Bartlesville’s 21 first-half points, while Dennis Duncan nailed multiple buckets and E.J. Belisle and Nash Zervas also contributed points.
Collins would finish with 17 points.
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GIRLS: Bartlesville 58, Ponca City 40
Sami Sheaffer surged to a hot start offensively — complemented by Alayah Lunn’s and Emma Zimmerman’s treys — and Bartlesville opened up with a 14-6 lead by the end of the first quarter.
Kennedy Nubel and Cadence Gray dialed in some key points in the second quarter as Bartlesville extended the margin to 14 points, 29-15.
Zimmerman, Nubel and Sheaffer all would reach double-figures. Zimmerman erupted for 13 points in the final period.
In the two meetings this season Bartlesville outscored Ponca City, 128-72 — an average winning margin of 28 points.
Bartlesville scored 58-or-more points eight times during the regular season — compared to only four times last season and three times in 2022-23.