A frosty third quarter came back to bite Coach Toney Cooper’s Dragons in the finals of the Heart of Oklahoma Tournament last Saturday night.
In that period Purcell only managed five …
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A frosty third quarter came back to bite Coach Toney Cooper’s Dragons in the finals of the Heart of Oklahoma Tournament last Saturday night.
In that period Purcell only managed five points, 12 behind Bethany’s 17. The final score was Bethany 54, Purcell 43.
Prior to the loss in the tournament finals, Purcell was on a roll having knocked off Lindsay, 47-34, Dickson, 64-22 in the tournament opener and topped Enid 46-36 in the semifinals.
Hadleigh Harp led the scoring in the Lindsay victory with eight.
Senior Kenna Esparza led the Dragons in the HOOT with 36 points in the three games.
Lili Del Toro, who was the game high scorer in the Dickson victory with 14, poured in 27 points in the tournament followed by Hannah Whitaker with 26, Haven Buchanan with 25 and Tinley Winters with 20.
“We opened the tournament against a young but scrappy Dickson team,” head coach Toney Cooper said. “Being a senior heavy team, our experience set the tone early.”
Whitaker pulled 10 rebounds in the contest while Winters grabbed nine boards.
“We got out of the gate fast against Enid but as anticipated Enid would not go away,” Cooper continued. “We had balance on offense with Lili Del Toro, Hannah Whitaker and Haven Buchanan all scoring nine points. In the end it came down to defense and Hadleigh Harp shut down their top scorer. Harp and Kenna Esparza, who was plagued with fouls, both had five steals each.”
Cooper said it was the team’s goal to be one of the teams competing for the championship Saturday.
“And we did just that,” he said. “Our crowd was amazing and the game did not disappoint,” he said.
Bethany is the defending State Champion and showed it jumping out to an early lead.
But the Dragons battled back to only trail by a bucket when the first half came to a close.
But then came the third quarter scoring drought.
“We couldn’t get any offensive rhythm in the third and it seemed like they couldn’t miss. While losses are hard, but always present an opportunity for us to simply get better,” Cooper said. “While our kids fell short of our goal for the tournament, I was extremely proud of them.”
Anadarko won the boys bracket knocking off Yukon in the finals, 38-35.
After falling to Lindsay last Tuesday, 53-49, Purcell bounced back with a pair of wins in the Heart of Oklahoma.
Coach Matt Lohn’s Dragons dropped the tournament opener to Elgin, 41-24 but came back to post victories over Byng, 64-33 and 44-32 over the OKC Knights to win the consolation bracket.
Jaime Resendiz and Brayden Tharp were both in double figures against Lindsay with 12 and 11 respectively.
Seth Bunch led the scoring in the Elgin game with 16. He finished with 40 points in the three games of the tournament. Bunch led the Dragons in the three tournament games with 46 total points while Resendiz had 29.
“The Heart is such a tremendous tournament,” Lohn said. “As a coach, you know you will be challenged for three days. I am proud of the way my guys competed. Against Elgin, I loved how we started the game. We were taking it to them rather than sitting back.
“However, we struggled to maintain our offensive momentum in the second period. In the second half I thought we played toe-to-toe and really got after it defensively,” Lohn continued. “Elgin tightened the screws and turned up their physicality and we simply didn’t adjust to it. That’s something we will continue to talk about. Day two we took a while to get going, but I liked where we were at halftime.”
Lohn said he was frustrated with turnovers.
“We had too many in crucial moments as of late. At halftime we discussed that the more physical team would dictate the way the rest of the game would go.
“I was pleased to see the team take that message to the floor. It was fun to watch my guys defend and turn their defensive efforts into offense,” the coach confirmed.
The Dragons out-scored Byng 40-11 in the second half.
“We got back to being the more physical team,” Lohn said.
“Unfortunately, we had some first half offensive woes. But our defense continues to carry us through anemic efforts on the other end. Credit the Knights. They didn’t make it easy on us with their length and physical approach on both ends,” he said.
“Our goal is always to play for a championship. If we can’t, then two wins are a must and we got that done.
“Now we will look to the rest of our conference and the playoffs,” the coach said.
Lohn said his Dragons are not playing their best basketball, yet.
“But, we don’t need to be, either.
“The key is that we begin trending in the right direction and I believe we are doing just that,” he concluded.
Purcell was scheduled to host Marlow Tuesday and will host Comanche February 4.
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