OKCPrepSports
BASKETBALL
Lawton upsets No. 10 Mustang
Coaches will always tell you that the most important game is the next one.
When it comes to the OSSAA Class 6A basketball tournament, no game is more important than the first game. Lose and you go home. Win and you move into the double elimination phase of the confusing bracket.
Thursday night at Putnam City, the Mustang girls faced Lawton.
The Lady Broncos were thought by many to have an excellent chance to host a Regional tournament, but their star post player, 6-foot-1 Jordan Pyle, was on crutches with a torn ACL. Mustang dropped to No. 5 in the West seedings and were slotted into the Putnam City Regional. PC was seeded No. 4.
Pyle has signed to play for Oral Roberts University next year.
The tempo of the game was immediately set by Lawton. They were going to hold the ball and play for the high percentage shot. Often that shot was taken by 6-foot-2 sophomore Kendra Suttles.
Credit veteran Lawton Coach Jack Barrett Jr. with formulating a great strategy. Mustang was defenseless against the Lady Wolverines.
Only 12 points were scored in the first quarter, with Mustang leading 7-5.
The pace continued into the second quarter. Lawton played for the inside shot against the smaller Lady Broncos - and Mustang shot from the outside - mostly missing.
Lawton took the lead on a basket that followed a lob pass into Suttles with five minutes left in the half.
Mustang managed to tie the game a minute later, but never led again.
The second half saw a slight shift in the offensive strategy of the Lady Wolverines. Noting that the Lady Bronchos were expecting their opponent to bring the ball down the court in a slow and methodical manner, the Lawton girls scored numerous times on fast breaks by Kari Ostrander.
Mustang, stilling missing from the outside and without an inside game, continued to fall behind. Lawton biggest lead came with 3:31 left in the game, 48-24.
The Lady Bronchos, behind the shooting of Kaitlin Ellison, finally made a run on Lawton in the final minutes, but it was far too little and way to late to change the outcome of the game.
Suttles scored 24 points to lead all scorers. Ostrander added 14.
Lawton, with their 56-37 upset victory, will move on to play Putnam City at Putnam City at 1:30 PM on Saturday.