The Wayne Bulldogs will be in Velma on Thursday as they face Empire at 2:30 p.m. in the Area tournament.

“We played them earlier in the year and lost by three. Wyatt and Jaxon fouled out in the fourth and that game was before Ty had really come on offensively.

“Both teams are better than they were in early December,” head coach Jackson Embry said.

District tournament

Last Friday, Wayne traveled to Binger and matched up with Fletcher in their first game. The Bulldogs won 65-38.

“From the get-go our guys turned their play up a notch. We started a little slow as Fletcher hit a three to start the game, but that was their only lead of the night.”

According to Embry, Wayne was able to take advantage of some mismatches down low, giving Fletcher fits on both ends of the court.

Three Bulldogs were in double figures in the win, led by Wyatt Webster’s 22 points. Ty Kemp had 18 and Jaxon Dill had 17.

The win over Fletcher moved Wayne on to face Binger on Saturday night. The Bulldogs lost 70-36.

“They had lots of variations on defense and trapped us at half court which really put us in a bind. Binger is well-coached and we just couldn’t get anything going,” Embry said.

Dill had a team-high 11 points and Kemp added seven.

“They triple-teamed Wyatt and they had their hands all over the ball. We just struggled a lot. We’ll learn from it and move on,” Embry said.

Maysville

Last Tuesday night Wayne notched a 60-38 win over Maysville.

“I like to get all of my seniors in to start their final game and that gave us a substantial size difference on the court,” Embry said.

“We got our younger guys back on the court in the second half and we were able to coast to a win the rest of the way.”

Webster (23), Dill (12) and Kemp (11) were all in double figures in the win. Bradey VanSchuyver, Cameron Davis and Logan Taylor each added three points.

Girls

The Lady Bulldogs will play Waurika today (Thursday) at 1 p.m. in Velma in the Area tournament.

“They have a girl who can flat out shoot and a 6’1” girl in the post. We’ll have to start quick and if we’re playing our game and playing defense like we can, we’ll be fine,” head coach Jackson Embry said.

District tournament

Wayne picked up a 58-45 win over Fletcher last Friday.

“They’re a quick team and they like to get out in transition. But they don’t have much post play. So we used Faith (Brazell) and Taelyn (Ringwald) to get them to crash down and then kicked it out to our shooters,” Embry said.

“Madi (Sharp) had the best half of any game all year. She hit some big shots for us and got us the lead at halftime.”

Ringwald finished the game with 24 points. Sharp and Dakota Martin added 10 points apiece.

“We played solid defense and executed our game plan to limit their transition points,” Embry said.

Next up, the Lady Bulldogs had Binger, but they fell to the Lady Bobcats 52-44.

“We played them earlier in the year and we could have beaten them,” Embry said.

Down 37-22 after three quarters, Wayne mounted a comeback, scoring 22 fourth quarter points to Binger’s 15.

“The girls showed no quit. We had a chance to win it in the end thanks to a run, but it was a little too late.”

Ringwald with 21 and Brazell with 10 were the leading scorers for Wayne.

Maysville

Last Tuesday, Wayne fell to the Lady Warriors, 53-27.

“Honestly, that’s the worst we’ve played all year. Maysville is good and they just picked us apart in the second half.”

“We may have been looking ahead to Fletcher some, but luckily that didn’t snowball into our playoff games.”

Ringwald finished the game with 12 points, the only Lady Bulldog in double figures. Sharp added five points and Martin added four.