bartlesville boys and girls drop road games to broken arrow
Bartlesville High School’s Sami Sheaffer (15) drives the ball during an earlier season game. The Lady Bruins fell on the road to Broken Arrow, 82-44, on Jan. 4, 2025.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
Most savvy Bartlesville High School basketball fans understood Tuesday’s (Jan. 4) doubleheader against Broken Arrow High School’s powerhouse teams was not likely to turn out happily.
And it didn’t.
In the varsity girls game, Broken Arrow took control in the second quarter on its way to the 82-44 victory in the District 6A-4 matchup hosted by Broken Arrow.
The nightcap provided a bitter tonic for the young and battling Bruins — Broken Arrow 72, Bartlesville 19.
The Lady Bruins — who are coached by Justyn Shaw — play at 7 p.m., followed by the Bruins — coached by Tommy DeSalme — at 8:30 p.m.
Following are more details on Tuesday’s trip to Broken Arrow:
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GIRLS: Broken Arrow 82, Bartlesville 44
For eight minutes the Bartlesville Lady Bruins (4-3, 2-3) played the Lady Tigers (10-1, 5-0) eye-to-eye.
Broken Arrow led by only one point at the end of the first quarter, 16-15.
But when the Lady Tigers zapped out with a 10-0 run to open the second quarter, Bartlesville’s umbrella of hope began to fold up.
By halftime Broken Arrow led by 20, 44-24. The one-sided pattern persisted throughout the final two quarters.
Sami Sheaffer did her part offensively to try to keep Bartlesville in contention — she finished with 20-plus points in her season break-out performance. Emma Zimmerman also reached double-digit points. But the rest of the Lady Bruins combined for around 10 points.
Bartlesville’s key in keeping up in the first quarter revolved around the hot hand of Zimmerman (five points) and Kennedy Nubel (a three-pointer) as well as Sheaffer.
But Bartlesville scored only nine points in the second quarter and failed to shut down the Lady Tigers’ relentless offensive attack.
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Bartlesville High School’s Hudson Eads (4) goes to the basket during an earlier season game. The Bruins fell on the road, 72-19, to Broken Arrow on Jan. 4, 2025.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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BOYS: Broken Arrow 72, Bartlesville 19
Broken Arrow used its superior height, weight and experience to maximum advantage.
The Bruins fell behind quickly, 11-2, and then 25-4.
By halftime, Bartlesville had clawed back within 20 points, 32-12, thanks to a late three-pointer by Nash Zervas.
But Broken Arrow pulled away to a different zip code with an 11-0 spurt to open the third quarter. Hudson Eads free throw accounted for all of Bartlesville’s scoring in the quarter.
Zervas finished with double-digit points to top the Bruin scoring. Eads, Trae Collins, Dennis Duncan and Jordan Turner also contributed to the scoring total.