Purcell’s boys and girls both went 3-1 last week posting regular season victories over Lindsay and the girls finishing third in the 54th annual Heart of Oklahoma Tournament.

Coach Matt Lohn’s Dragons took home the fifth place hardware.

Due to Mother Nature rearing her ugly head, the consolation games were played in Historic Boney Matthews Fieldhouse due to the snow shortened event. Tournament officials were forced to use not only The Reimer Center but Boney as well to get in as many games as possible. Consolation games that were set for Monday were scrapped due to continued poor road conditions.

Coach Toney Cooper’s Dragons opened the tournament against Anadarko posting a 33-27 victory over the Warriors who were without several key players suspended due to a brawl at Ardmore a few days earlier.

“Our kids came out flat and ‘Darko took advantage of it,” Cooper said. “Sloppy game for both teams but we were able to contain them well in the second quarter holding them to two points.

“That proved to be pivotal given the final score,” Cooper said.

Halle Madden led all scores with seven. Lili Del Toro followed with six.

“It truly was the definition of an ugly win, but we did enough to win so I was glad our girls advanced.

In the semifinals the Dragons were pitted against a highly ranked Elgin Owl squad and came up on the short end of a 53-31 count. Del Toro’s 12 points led the Dragons.

“It was our first game without Rylee Peoples who was injured in the previous game. Our girls came out strong and played tough to start the game, the coach said. “Our offense got stagnant in the second and they got some momentum. I was extremely proud of our kids as we fought back in the third cutting it to six. Elgin forced us into several turnovers that opened the game up for them.”

The girls needed an early cup of Jo for their 8:30 a.m. start at Boney (due to the weather) for third place.

“The game started sluggish for both due to the early tip,” Cooper said. “Our girls settled in and played a solid game. Ball movement was good. We were aggressive defensively and most importantly we took care of the ball.”

Purcell broke open a 10-10 tie at the end of the first quarter and fashioned a 24-20 lead that held up in the second half.

The prize victory of the week and the top Dragon performance of the season was at Lindsay January 20 when the power outage at the high school forced the home game to be moved to Lindsay.

The Dragons took it to the Leopardettes 61-31 behind the 19 points by red-hot Rylee Peoples. Halle Buchanan was also in double digits with 10.

“End to end it was probably our best all season,” Cooper said. “The ball movement was exceptional and defensively we played as a unit.

Rylee Peoples had her best game of the season, leading all scores with 19. She added several steals and rebounds to truly display a complete game. Halle Buchanan followed with 10. Our bench again performed well generating over 20 points. Taygan Winters and Lyric Harding led the way with solid defense and timely shots throughout the course of the game,” Cooper concluded.

Lohn’s Dragons also had a banner performance against the Leopards, handing Lindsay its first defeat of the entire season, 64-47.

A trio of Dragons were in double figures led by Jaime Resendiz with 18. Both Canaan Colburn and Drew Blair finished with a dozen each.

After trailing 30-22 at halftime, Lindsay made a run in the third period but the Dragons stood up to the challenge out-scoring the Leopards 21-6 in the final stanza.

“Lindsay is having a great season,” Lohn confirmed. “They are physical with a lot of offensive fire power. My guys were excited for the challenge, even after the change of venue from home to away.

“Although I didn’t love our defensive focus early, I was encouraged by the way we continued to respond with quality execution with the ball in our hands,” he said.

“We had a small period where we simply forgot how to guard a dribbler. That paired with a (soft) tech on me, helped get them level. However, this team had my back, going on a 13-0 run after the technical FTs, and ultimately put it out of reach early in the fourth,” Lohn said.

To open the Heart the Dragons fell behind 15 in the fourth quarter against Byng. However, the Dragons raided the Pirate ship and rallied to knot the score at 40-all with 6.5 seconds left in regulation.

The only problem was, Byng took the ball the length of the court and hit a buzzer beating lay up just before the final buzzer sounded for a 42-40 victory.

“We were seeing stars, but these kids have yet to quit or lay down for anyone, and with about 2:30 left in the game I challenged them to turn up the pressure and sell out. They did just that, coming together to erase a nine-point deficit with less than 10 seconds left,” Lohn said.

“It was a heartbreaker, knowing we had battled so hard to get back even. I know we all felt that if we got it to overtime we were going to get the win.”

The Dragons bounced back to smack down Enid 66-46 with 11 players making at least one point.

Resendiz and Blair led the attack with 10 points each.

“I was really proud of the way we bounced back with our win against Enid. They have some athletic guys, a couple who can score it from multiple levels, and they are downright scrappy. I felt we came out with good focus on both ends,” the coach continued.

“This was the effort we needed after the heartbreaker with Byng. I know these kids had other plans, but they were not deterred by the setback, responding with tremendous resilience in the win. We got back to playing to our standard, and that was the most important by product of the Enid game,” Lohn said.

The Dragons finished the tournament at Boney due to the weather running away from the Oklahoma City Knights, 87-66.

Blair was on fire burning the nylons for seven treys and finishing with a team-high 30 points.

Resendiz canned 23 in the paint and Colburn finished in double digits dropping in 15.

“What a fun game! It was extremely meaningful for everyone involved that both our girls and boys got to play a game in Boney Matthews, and it was extra special getting to play for some hardware. Of course, we were provided the opportunity due to Byng’s inability to attend on Friday.

“It was the offensive performance of the year for us. Things were flowing and we were consistently finding the right guys and shooting great shots.

They have played a tough schedule, so I believe that win is another feather in our cap as rankings end and playoff assignments come out. And it was nice to finish a weird week of 4 games in 4 days with 3-1 record,” the coach concluded.

The girls are 6-11 on the year while the boys are 11-6.

Tuesday night’s home game with Marlow was postponed.